by Daniel Barrick
For over a century, the Newport Mill has stood along the Sugar River, a tributary of the Connecticut River that helped power New Hampshire’s manufacturing industry. For the next few months, water will spur a different kind of industry inside the sturdy brick building.
The mill is the headquarters for “H2O: Film on Water,” a show featuring dozens of works of contemporary art that explore the human relationship with water. The exhibition is spread among three other sites – at galleries in Hanover, Bellows Falls, Vt., and Brattleboro, Vt. – all of which hug the Connecticut River and further encourage viewers to consider the show’s theme and their own connection to water.
The exhibition was organized by Cynthia Reeves, creative director of Great River Arts, a nonprofit organization that seeks to promote the arts in the Connecticut River Valley. She said the mill’s river setting extends the show’s theme beyond the gallery walls.
“One of our hopes is to connect people to the landscape,” Reeves said. “We really want to put a spotlight on the riverway.”
The mill’s owner, William Ruger, offered the building to Reeves last year when he learned that she was thinking of putting together an ambitious project to mark the 10th anniversary of Great River Arts. It took nearly a year to pull the exhibition together, soliciting works from dozens of artists and figuring out how to fit them in the mill’s open floor plan. The result is some 20 videos and several other works of art – paintings, photographs, sculpture and installations – across 18,000 square feet of unbroken space.
Entering the mill gallery, you’re greeted by the projected image of an icy ocean, rippling and curling in a series of slow waves. The sound of other videos
echoes through the hall. Arranging the mill floor to accommodate all of the works was one of the toughest tasks in pulling the show together, Reeves said.
“This space is a huge challenge,” Reeves said. “It’s like putting on a museum show.”
The works at Newport approach the topic of water from several perspectives: ecological, political, personal. Some deal directly with thorny issues such as global warming and public water use. Others take a more playful approach, such as one video that features footage of children frolicking in a New York City pool.
Clare Langan’s “Flooded Rooms” calls to mind images from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Anne Lindberg’s “Vapor,” an assembly of thin blue and green threads hanging from the ceiling, resembles a waterfall or a fine mist.
“Electric Sheep,” by Amy Globus, features long sequences of a squid maneuvering through glass tubes. Over time, the animal’s movements take on the alluring look of a dancer.
“Jump,” by Stephen DiRado, is a series of photographed portraits of people at the exact moment they leap from a bridge into the waters off Martha’s Vineyard.
For “The State of Things,” Ligorano Reese cast blocks of ice spelling out the word “DEMOCRACY,” left them in the summer sun on a street in Denver and taped the results as the letters slowly melted over the next 24 hours.
Reeves said she made video art the focus of the show, in part, because she felt it was a medium to which children could relate. She hopes school groups will visit, and the gallery will host kid-friendly programs starting in September.
The show’s division among four sites is a key piece of the overall exhibition, Reeves said. She hopes visitors will drive from gallery to gallery, “like a treasure hunt,” she said. In doing so, they’ll follow the path of the Connecticut River and perhaps contemplate the themes explored inside the gallery.
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