Water Works at Proteus Gowanus | Brooklyn, NY

WATER WORKS AT PROTEUS GOWANUS

MAY 30-JULY 13, 2014
OPENING RECEPTION: SATURDAY, MAY 31, 6-8PM

Water Works is a group exhibition featuring the work of 16 visual artists from New Orleans. This exhibition is presented in low-lying Gowanus, Brooklyn, one of many areas where Superstorm Sandy’s tidal surge wreaked havoc, joining in flooded solidarity the two communities of greater New York and New Orleans.

Water Works is curated by Christopher Saucedo, an artist from both Brooklyn and New Orleans who suffered losses in the Katrina flood and in Superstorm Sandy. The show’s title is derived from the board game, Monopoly. It invokes the infrastructures and agencies that deliver water to our sinks and tubs while also serving as a metaphor for tears. Saucedo has observed that the Katrina flood has been “the implied filter through which out-of-town audiences contextualize [New Orleans] artwork.” He compares the “automatic solemnity that takes over when visitors find themselves at the World Trade Center site” to reactions to Katrina and concludes that “As sure as place defines us, place-altering events change us.”

But Water Works is not another hard-luck Katrina show. We asked this group of New Orleans artists to  consider water in all its complexity and universality. Saucedo further refined the lens to the two topics suggested by the title of the show: namely, infrastructure and emotion.

Curator and Artist: Christopher Saucedo

Artists: Kevin Baer, Ron Bechet, Generic Art Solutions (G.A.S.), Laura Gipson, Jessica Goldfinch, Cheryl Hayes, Rachel Jones Deris, Matthew Kirscht, Holger Lang*, Malcolm McClay, Anastasia Pelias, Gina Phillips, Christopher Saucedo, Dan Tague, Ashley Robins-Tague, Michel Varisco, Monica Zeringue