Water Exhibit

The Water Exhibit at the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum is a very broad collection of works dealing with thematic and aesthetic elements of water. The exhibit displayed an eclectic assortment of pieces, which 
ultimately enhanced my experience of the show. Because of the spread of pieces across many mediums including painting, sculpture, video, etc. and of course the dismissal of time as a limiting factor to the selection process, the show resonated with a fresh and well-rounded undertone.

The welcoming piece at the entrance of the exhibit set the tone not only for the rest of the show, but for a contemporary critique that the curator intelligently activated and offered incoming viewers prior to everything else. The commodity of bottled water has revealed many issues that affect the world environmentally as well as economically.  Ice and Arch, provides an unsettling thought for the viewer to dwell on while continuing into the first room of the show.

The first room of the Water exhibit contained a very interesting collection of pieces, which immediately activated a dialogue that would be apparent in the rest of the show. There were sculpture, painting, lithography and photographic pieces that showed water in predictable forms and more creative displays. The condensation cube was a brutally simple piece, but dynamic in the sense of reminding us of the moments everyone has spent watching condensation run down the windows of our homes, or car doors without much attention. By displaying condensation in a gallery space, the viewer must then engage with a form of water that has otherwise been transparent and invisible—swiped away as a nuisance in our line of sight. I enjoyed the collaboration of the rest of the pieces as they were carefully selected and organized in a sort of organic revealing manner. The rest of the show reflected the intelligent layout of the first room.

The Lynn Davis photo of Iceberg II in Disko Bay, Greenland especially caught my eye because of the beautiful composition of the photograph and the detail that the image captured. The contrast between the darkness of the water and the lightness of the ice provides a very enjoyable scene for the viewer. Beyond aesthetics is the relationship of the elements in the photo in reference to the theme of the show. All the stages of H2O compose the photograph into an epic and refreshing perspective on water.

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[not done..]