Sarah Cameron Sunde, research documentation for “36.5 / a durational performance with the sea” as part of Marie Lorenz’s “Tide and Current Taxi” (2015), photo by Marie Lorenz.

This event is free and open to the public. We will meet with two members of the curatorial team behind Works on Water, the new triennial exhibition and performance series of art on, in, or with the water. We will discuss the relationships between art and the future of our waterways, and learn about the flourishing water art movement.

Guest Speakers: Eve Mosher and Sarah Cameron Sunde

Facilitated by Tal Beery

There seems to have been a major expansion of artists working in, on, or with water over the last few years. Artists are building boats and taking people on tours, sculptures are being installed in rivers and oceans, and performances draw audiences to the waterfront. Many artists are at least partly responding to the vulnerability of water to industrial pollution and climate change. But many others are drawing on water’s strengths, like the idiosyncratic laws that govern its use and its capacity to connect every corner of the Earth. In response, a group of artists have come together to curate the first of a new triennial exhibition and performance series called Works on Water, which invites reflection on the future of our waterways. This afternoon we will hear from two of the artists on this curatorial team. They will discuss their own personal water/art practices and the events that inspired this latest project. Together, we will consider the environmental, social, and technological changes that have sparked the new water art movement.

Sarah Cameron Sunde is an interdisciplinary artist and director working at the intersection of performance, video and public art. She leads the live art cohort Lydian Junction, is Deputy Artistic Director of New Georges, and is known internationally as Jon Fosse’s American translator and director (five U.S. debut productions; translations published by PAJ). Among other places, her work been seen at 3LD Art & Technology Center, EFA Project Space, the Knockdown Center, Kennedy Center, Guthrie Theater and presented internationally in Norway, The Netherlands, Mexico, China, Uganda and Iraqi Kurdistan. Honors include a Princess Grace Award, Creative Climate Award First prize 2015, and residencies at The Watermill Center and Hermitage Foundation. She holds a BA in Theater from UCLA and an MFA in Digital and Interdisciplinary Art Practice from the City College of New York, CUNY. Sunde is currently working on large-scale projects 36.5 / a durational performance with the sea and ACROSS AN EMPTY LOT: a temporary memorial to the empty space. She is a 2016-17 artist-in-residence with LMCC’s Workspace program. http://www.sarahcameronsunde.com/

Eve Mosher is an artist, interventionist and playworker-in-training, living and working in New York City. Her works use investigations of the landscape as starting points for audience exploration of urban issues. Her public works raise issues on the environment, public/private space use, history of place, cultural and social issues and our understanding of the urban ecosystem. Her work has been profiled in international media including the The New Yorker, New York Times, ARTnews, American Scientist, L’uomo Vogue, and Le Monde. Her public and community artworks have received grants from New York State Council on the Arts and New York Department of Cultural Affairs, both through the Brooklyn Arts Council, and The City Parks Foundation. Collaborative works with Heidi Quante (Creative Catalysts) have received support from The Kresge Foundation, The Compton Foundation, The Whitman Foundation, and Invoking the Pause. She has a serious interest in urban ecologies and sustainable development. She is a curator for the triennial Works on Water, celebrating art that works on, in or with the water, and is a consultant for Creative Capital; she has a serious interest in urban ecology and sustainable development. http://www.evemosher.com/

Tal Beery is co-founder of Arts and Ecology, a multidisciplinary institute committed to research, art, and education on radical environmental themes. He is founding faculty at School of Apocalypse, examining the connections between creative practice and notions of survival. Beery is an activist with Occupy Museums, opposing the economic and social injustices propagated by institutions of art and culture. His written work and interviews have appeared in numerous publications and his personal and collaborative works have been exhibited in museums and galleries in the US and Europe.

Works on Water is the first triennial dedicated to art made on, in and with the water. This inaugural event features artworks, theatrical performances, conversations, and off-site expeditions that explore diverse artistic investigation of water in the urban environment.

The artists in this exhibition work with water as site and material in response to the urgency of a changing climate, increasing urban density, and a burgeoning public awareness of ecological concerns. Their works connect to current economic, political, and global issues, and are in conversation with the traditions of Land Art, Public Art, and Performance Art, among others.

Water is a challenging medium—a formidable force—and it is inherently collaborative and cross-disciplinary. Water invites curiosity and passion but working with water also requires respect, rigor and expertise. The works and events within the Works on Water triennial are built to ignite audience imagination and invite each individual to be a change agent through shared creativity, knowledge, and contemplation of the past, present, and future of water in New York City.

The exhibition artists are: Torkwase Dyson, Floating Studios for Dark Ecologies (Marina Zurkow, with Nicholas Hubbard and Rebecca Lieberman), Marie Lorenz, Mare Liberium, Mary Mattingly, Paloma McGregor, Eve Mosher, Nancy Nowacek, Sarah Cameron Sunde and TRYST (Clarinda Mac Low, Carolyn Hall and Paul Benney).