Visitors to the Basil Sellers Exhibition Centre can immerse themselves in a serene, thought-provoking video installation.
Speaking Water is the result of a collaboration between five international, award-winning artists who shared video, audio, song and spoken word from their different locations across the globe. The resulting video installation weaves images, animation and performance – with recurring images and sound – in a long loop that reflects on water's journey from ice and glacier to river and lake, from waves and sea to cloud and rain.
Eurobodalla Council's coordinator of creative arts Indi Carmichael said the artists - Jasmine Cederqvist, Anna Glynn, Simone Hooymans, Emily Jay and Anastasia Savinova – were spread across the globe. She said Speaking Water was the perfect piece for each of us to reflect on own relationship with water.
"After recent years of drought, fires, floods – all these dramatic climactic events – there's a lot in this artwork that will resonate with people in our area; itself an area renowned for beaches, rivers and watercourses," Ms Carmichael said.
"Water is all around us all the time. It is life giving; sometimes benign and peaceful, sometime a terrifying force. But how often do we stop to consider our complex connection to it.
"On a more personal level, we're all basically bags of water – roughly 60 per cent of us. And personal is what this work is all about. You're not coming to watch a documentary. Rather it's exploratory and peaceful, something to dip into or even immerse yourself completely."
While video installations have been around for decades, Ms Carmichael said it may be an unfamiliar artform for some in our area.
"Thanks to support from CreateNSW, we've installed some special new equipment at the Bas specifically for this show," she said.
"If you have never experienced this medium, I encourage you to come give it a try."
Speaking Waters was developed in collaboration with the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery and run at the Bas from Saturday 11 February until Sunday 12 March, 10am-4pm daily.
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