Underwater at Towner, the contemporary art museum
3 April – 20 June 2010
30 March 2010
Painting, sculpture, photography and video by ten international artists, including Bill Viola, Dorothy Cross and Ellen Gallagher
Curated by Angela Kingston
Around 375 million years ago, our ancestors crawled out of the waters…Underwater is about the experience of total submersion; we invite you to return to the watery depths once more. From a wealth of possibilities, this exhibition brings together the most compelling underwater-inspired artworks of the past decade, and proposes that the underwater is a compelling motif of our times.
The show includes three mesmerising videos. In the first, by Bill Viola, two bodies intertwine as they slowly descend into dark waters, exhaling their last breath. In Janaina Tschäpe’s video a woman’s head rocks from side to side, just beneath the water’s surface; she appears to be in a trance, or perhaps dreaming. And in a video by Dorothy Cross, we see a woman wafting in sunlit water that teems with jellyfish, her hair billowing among them.
A drawing by Ellen Gallagher conjectures a monstrous creature that has evolved in the far depths – part natural history specimen, part science fiction. Other drawings by Ed Pien suggest a nightmarish underwater realm, in which ghastly creatures do battle. In Daniel Gustav Cramer’s photographs the seabed is deathly and ominous: there are towering rocks, rising silts – it is a microcosm of barrenness and decay.
On the other hand – straight from the pages of Jules Verne – a motorized model submarine by Cut and Scrape lurches about in the clutches of a giant squid. Meanwhile, tapering metallic sculptures by Klaus Osterwald, suspended as a shoal from the ceiling, emit the strange chirrupings of fish, as recorded by underwater microphones.
More abstractly, Shirley Kaneda’s paintings are concerned with the state of liquidity – her precise yet free squiggles are a play on refraction and reflection. Seunghyun Woo’s sculptures of imaginary aquatic flora and fauna likewise suggest liquid movement and distortion.
The underwater is seen here as a metaphor for the unconscious: it represents another state, beyond ourselves, but also within us. It is death and the womb, freedom and dread, innocence and despoilment. In a wider sense, too, the artists in Underwater manifest the anxiety many of us share about this watery, life-filled planet and the threats it faces from humans.
Eastbourne Borough Council Cabinet Member for Tourism, Cllr Susan Morris says of the new exhibition: “I am thrilled that once again Towner is giving us the opportunity to see exceptional contemporary artwork from artists from all over the world. It’s really exciting to see another show of this scope in Eastbourne, and it’s great that this exhibition is free to all. The underwater theme is a perfect fit for our seaside resort, and also seems very timely at a moment when environmental issues are at the forefront of our minds.
“Watch out for some exciting watery events and themed activities to go with this exhibition!”
The Underwater catalogue includes a discussion by J. Malcolm Shick, professor of oceanography, about the history and science of depicting underwater worlds, and an essay about the artworks in the show, by the exhibition’s curator, Angela Kingston.
Opening hours: Tuesday – Sunday 10am – 6pm; closed Mondays except Bank Holidays
Admission: free
This is a Towner Touring Exhibition curated by Angela Kingston.
