An object hasn’t just one life.
At the Lumenhouse in Brooklyn is visitable CONVERGENCE, a group exhibition that brings together seven contemporary artists responding to the current environmental crisis in our oceans.
The exhibitions is organized in affiliation with Project Vortex, a not-for-profit organization committed to reusing plastic debris from our oceans and shorelines. The title references convergence zones - the ocean currents that collect the vast floating islands of non-biodegradable trash, the largest of which are several thousand miles across. Each artist's work, suggests creative possibilities for reuse of plastic and other consumer byproduct materials that often otherwise enter the waste stream.
Between the artists, Anne Percoco exhibits Indra's Cloud, a floating raft comprised of over 1000 plastic bottles constructed to draw attention to the polluted conditions of the Yamuna River in India. The mobile public sculpture brings to life an ancient mythe of Indra and Krishna raising Govardhan hill.
In Indian mythology, Indra is the god of war, storms and rainfalls. Indra’s Cloud is a sculpture representing the destructive environmental forces affecting the natural resources. This floating structure made by plastic bottles cruised the Yamuna river in Vrindavan reminding that water is a delicate element, a part of human heritage.
This poetical operation reveals the hypocrisy in day-by-day behavior. Srivatsa Goswami of Vrindavan Radharam Temple says:” We religious people are hypocrites in our relationship to Yamuna. We say she is pure, but we use Bisleri (a brand of mineral water) in our temples. If Yamuna is pure, let use Yamuna water, or else let admit that there is a problem and get on with fixing it”.
When the ride finished, a local NGO (Friends of Vrindavan) used the bottles from the sculpture to grow saplings, which were planted in and around Vrindavan.
anja visini
CONVERGENCE
October 16-December 12, 2010
Opening Reception: Saturday, Oct 16, 7-9PM
http://lumenhouse.com/exhibits.html
http://www.annepercoco.com/indrascloud.html
