May 16 - 19 2012
Water Week
water-themed videos by
Steven L. Anderson
Nicole Antebi
Celeste Fichter
Constantin Hartenstein
Cynthia Hooper
Sarah Walko
curated by Karl Erickson

Presented in conjunction with Stephanie Richard's performance The Swimsuit Edition on Saturday, May 19, 8 PM.

A selection of videos that dive into the variety of ways we use, abuse and celebrate the essential ingredient of life: water.

Steven L. Anderson

Thunder
The US Air Force's flying circus spirals itself out of existence in this short video.

Steven L. Anderson works in a variety of media to explore the power of
Nature, and the nature of power. His work has been shown in Los Angeles,
Chicago, San Francisco, and New York; and at http://www.StevenLAnderson.com.

Nicole Antebi

The Geography of Reclamation

Can we access all meaning each time a word is used even as it’s meaning changes over time?  Reclamation once meant not letting a drop of water go to waste and waste meant free flowing water to the sea. The meaning of these words would change, first by the environmental movement and later by the land artists of the 1960s and 70s to mean the process of recouping neglected or distressed landscapes.  Geography of Reclamation is a short animated essay tracing these terms through the imprint of David Brower, Floyd Dominy, and Robert Smithson by way of the Colorado River Basin.
I largely see my work in critical dialogue with this past belief that land can only be valued in terms of its utilitarian function, a principle that became an aesthetic utilitarianism for the environmental artists of the 1960’s and 70’s. Unlike the mission of land reclamation or aesthetic utilitarianism, my work instead illuminates the problem of disappearing water in the context of these histories.

Nicole Antebi is a Los Angeles based artist and organizer,  working mostly in video, installation, and animation, she has recently developed a series of animated documentaries which draw connections between the language, strategies, and mythologies surrounding so many of California’s historical water wizards and moguls whose excessive vision led to calamitous ends.  Recent projects include the anthology/website, entitled Water, CA: Creative Visualizations for a New Millennium (www.watercalifornia.org) co-edited with Enid Baxter Blader.  The project was also the focus of a recent exhibition and festival at the Crocker Art Museum  and will be the basis of an upcoming exhibition at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, CA, slated to open October 2012.   Other recent projects include Pitch Battles, a multimedia performance at CSUMB with Colin Dickey and Chris Kallmyer, Ever Green, an exhibition embedded within Lara Bank's "Portable Forest" at Monte Vista Projects, and "And the Whale Said...," an impressionistic retelling of Moby Dick as a puppet show on a capsized ship at Machine Project (co-produced with Linda Wei).

Celeste Fichter

water, water

water, water (2008) is a three minute meditation on the characteristics of water in human terms.
Comprised of ten very short chapters, each mini narrative suggest longer unseen dramas.
Subjects include rain drops kissing, a stream being interviewed and a wave with a cold.
Celeste Fichter was born in New Jersey in 1965 and holds an MFA in Photography and
Related Media from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She has exhibited at Go North Gallery, PH Gallery, DeChiara Stewart Gallery, Islip Art Museum and the Bronx Museum of Art. Her work has been reviewed in the New York Times and Village Voice. Her video work is currently in several traveling exhibitions and film festivals in Europe and the U.S.  She lives and works in Brooklyn.


Walking on Water

The classic biblical story of Jesus' walk across the Sea of Galilee is revisited in Celeste Fichter's short Walking on Water. Over 70 different depictions culled from the internet - ranging from coloring books to Medieval painting - animate the narrative of Jesus' walk on the water to rescue his disciples from their boat during a storm and Peter's attempt to follow suit only to sink before Jesus saves him from drowning. The epic tale relayed in 60 seconds is accompanied by the soundtrack to the 1970's TV police drama Hawaii Five-O.

Constantin Hartenstein

STRHOME

between the upper and lower surface the parts of the body move forward and backwards
the counter-pressure demands rudders
the new detection is on the edge 
tricks and turns
drifting apart and approximating in a media area whose coordinates remain unexplored

Constantin Hartenstein (*1982 in Herzberg, Germany) is an installation and video artist  living and working in Berlin and New York. His works deal with appearances of spaces within the context of mass media and fast forward consumer culture. He studied 'Experimental Media' at the University of the Arts Berlin in the classes of Maria Vedder and Heinz Emigholz where he graduated with honors in 2009. In 2010, he was awarded the 'Meisterschüler' degree (honored master student) at Braunschweig University of Art where he studied 'Fine Arts' with Prof. Candice Breitz. In 2012, he will be an artist in resident in New York granted by Triangle Arts Association (USA) as well as an artist in resident at Grand Central Art Center, Santa Ana, California (USA). His works have been exhibited and screened at international galleries and institutions such as Volksbühne Berlin, Berlinische Galerie, transmediale, Herzliya Bienal (IL) and Goethe Institut New York.

Cynthia Hooper

Bay Dredge

Bay Dredge examines the somewhat bizarre spectacle and unexpected formal elegance of an imposing effluent pipe that spewed its contents along an unspoiled beach in rural northern California in winter of 2007. This eleven mile-long pipe extended—vacuum cleaner-like—from a dredging barge at the local marina, across the marshes, and over the sand dunes to its final destination. The varied and distinctive contents of the bottom of Humboldt bay were thus dramatically revealed to all who dared to venture near this powerful motif to economic expansion. (© 2007, running time: 9 minutes.)

Sarah Walko

Local History

Local History is a piece constructed around the idea of allowing nature to tell a story that turns out to be surprisingly personal.  Alchemy is a philosophical tradition from antiquity looked upon by many as both a science and a spiritual endeavor. It is regarded by many as a predecessor to modern day chemistry. Its experiments and inventions occur in communion with nature, invention and the investigation/externalization of self. One goal of the scientist therefore, is personal transmutation. It uses complex systems of symbols, individual and universal, integrating the self with the natural world to elevate consciousness. I believe that the objects and environments we surround ourselves with intentionally and unintentionally in our daily lives say a tremendous amount about our individual and collective psyches. The film is an exploration of a narrator trying to understand that story.

SarahWalko is a multimedia sculptor/installation artist and writer. She is currently the executive director of Triangle Arts Association.  El Cadaver Exquisito, an experimental documentary collaboration film project she worked on with with film director Victor Ruano and Rossemberg Rivas, is currently in festival circuits. Her fiction and non fiction essays have been published by While Whale Review Literary Journal and she writes consistently for Hyperallergic Art Blog. Her visual artwork has been published by The Dirty Goa, Redivider,Blood Lotus, Apple Valley Review, 2 River, A Capella Zoo, Awosting Alchemy, 5x5 Literary Magazine,Bathhouse and Host Publications. She has participated in several artists residency programs, shows frequently in group exhibitions in New York and just completed an exhibition at the Museum of Nature in Canada. She is currently working on new sculpture/installations and film.