Although my critique is slanted due to my participation in the installation of the water show, I am impressed by the solidification of the theme as both a survey of element of water as well as indicator of the contemporary experience with the substance. While I cannot put a definite statement on the message of the exhibition, I feel it was organized gauge our reaction to water, whether it be physically or the image. At the entrance of the exhibit space, a sculpture made from a fishing net and filled with bottled water hangs above. Even before we enter the space we are confronted with a modern dilemma associated with water, consumption and availability. The net is just above reach while also making allusions to fishing, more specifically the technique of massive harvesting and trapping. The bottled water makes the substance a commodity to be bought and sold, a luxury item available to very few. The curator is making a statement about values, the value of a substance essential to life versus the value of the item as something to be bought and sold. The piece, while powerful within context, stands alone as a statement unto itself, separate from the main installation as not to spin the viewers interpretation of the show too much. The main exhibition space however creates a flow while presenting different themed work, again falling into an engineered statement about waters relationship with human life. The themes range from the water as a element, physical properties and substance, water as geography, the depiction of water and its relationship with the space it occupies, water as an ideal, a room designated by the curator "Men in Boats, Women in Waves" plays on gender roles as well abstract associations with waters effect on our psyche, and finally water's as physical being, how water effects our selves and the world we live in. Overall I found the curation provide an adequate sampling of our relationship with water and provides a basis for further conceptual thought in regard to the substance.
A few works stood out to me as well as helped dictated an abridged curation in regard to the shows effect on my own conceptual thinking.
The first work I chose is the Maya Lin piece "Pin River-Hudson" (2009). The work came as a no brainer mostly due to my involvement in the installation. That said, I spent the most time with the piece and I was able to meditate on the "why" it was chosen for the installation. Despite her status as a high profile artist, the piece itself maps out a waterway and presents a system from start to finish in a medium not associated with fine art. The piece is both drawing and sculptural and plays on both river-systems as a construction of human mapping as well as the piece as construction made of carpentry nails.
The next piece chosen, another Maya Lin sculpture, presents a different view of water than the physical landscape. "Dewpoint 18" (2007) is important in the discourse of the exhibition as it presents two different, albeit equally valid interpretations of water from the same artist in the same show. Superficially I chose the piece as a counterpoint to the "Pin River" but I also wanted to illustrate how sculpture effects the space it is in as much as makes a statement about the theme of the exhibition. The glass orbs, arranged randomly in the corner of the room acts like the physical property of dew, drops of condensation that bead up and refract light, changing the space around them, much like the sculpture changes the space around the corner.
Hans Haacke's piece "Condensation Cube" (1963-1967) has a similar effect as "Dewpoint 18" but the effect of the condensation is more contained. Instead, Haacke turns the effect of the water in on itself and aestheticizes the property change instead of the space.
Finally to round off the space, I chose the Atul Balla piece "Immersions" 2008 in order to draw attention to the connection of the glass boxes on a pedestal as with the aforementioned work and also illustrate the effect water has on objects present in our daily lives. The pieces I chose are all sculptures as I feel water it is more visceral and can be conveyed better in the round with sculpture than with two-dimensional flatter work. My interpretation from the show is water literally seeps into all aspects of my human experience, whether it is the daily intake in order to stay hydrated, to the more political question of "Why can't I drink the water from the net?"
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