OXBOW+WATER A MIRROR OF SELF

The exhibition includes pencil illustrations, process sketches, and photographs of past proposed or installed environmental sculptures, pencil drawings or conceptual spaces, and a large installation artwork, Oxbow + Water as a Mirror of Self.  As Layne often collaborates with other artists or designers on his projects, this installation includes the vessel-making artworks of Seagrove potters, Al McCanless and associates. This gallery installation spotlights the importance of preserving clean, pure water through a greater understanding of how topography influences rainwater flows and the effect simple human actions can have in protecting this vital natural resource (water).   Dr. Layne’s gallery installation spotlights his artwork series, Aesthetic Engineering, where he designs and installs sculptural landscapes that assist his clients to creatively correct man-made ecological problems through the use of environmental art.

“Art can build awareness, the first critical step in changing our collective story from one that exploits and destroys nature for the benefit of humankind, to one that coexists with the natural world, nurturing and valuing it, and all of its life-giving properties (R. J. Rosenberg, Art in Action: nature, creativity and our collective future, 2007).”

Modern Western artists, and more specifically environmental sculptors, living in a period of relative economic comfort and socio-political “truth,” often are the first to spotlight and bring to the forefront not only social ills but more recently, ecological themes through their artworks.  But whether overly activist or not, environmental sculptors can teach us about the vast and rich web of life through works of art that celebrate, reflect, interact, or protect our natural and associated cultural resources by providing the impetus for action.

Within our lifetimes, clean drinkable water will become the new gold standard, replacing oil and gas as our most precious resource.  As a global society, we continue to degrade this most essential of natural resources through hydraulic fracturing (fracking), depletion of deep aquifer levels, overflows of hog waste logoons, coal ash storage ponds, nuclear power plant cooling waters, salt water migration, large-scale deforestation, and large scale residential and business development that takes away rainwater infiltration opportunities, etc., etc. 

As the earth heats up, populations continue to increase, and the pollution of our natural resources continues to go on unabated, quality water will become scarce.  Those communities that have or control water usage will become the new world centers and global powers.  We have already become weaned away from drinking water from our household taps and purchase our drinking water in bottles.  Even the storage bottles are made of plastic, whose manufacture results in byproducts that have been stored in dumps and landfills that allow the chemicals (pcbs) to pollute the underground sources of our drinking water.

But rather than depicting a gloom and doom scenario, through his artworks, Michael Roy Layne suggests ways in which people can correct (aesthetic engineering) ecological problems.  Oxbow + Water as Mirror of Self spotlights the importance of preserving clean, pure water through a greater understanding of how topography influences rainwater flows and the effect simple human actions can have in protecting this vital natural resource.  The quality of our water is a reflection of the value we hold for ourselves for future generations.

The white fabric form depicts a landform uphill from a meandering stream with ridges (water dispersing) and swales (water collection).  Illuminated from below, the darker lines where the fabric pieces are sewn together depict the movement of water droplets during a rainstorm event. An understanding of these water collecting and water dispersing landforms can help when deciding upon how best to slow down water and allow it to infiltrate rather than create storm water surges, which can pollute the water resource through erosion.

The 273 vertical stand of bamboo culms depict the growth patterns along a stream corridor where the thickest and highest plants find a home during dry periods where the water is concentrated at the water collection points (swales).  Again, planting trees, shrubs or groundcover along the uphill side of a stream can also slow down water (reducing pollution causing erosion) while helping to clean the runoff before it hits of the stream.

The curvilinear form of 91 bricks which hold the bamboo culms can not only be a man-made bank-holding mechanism, but the bricks can be made using coal ash, which reduces the amount of ash that may flow into adjacent streams.

The stone spiral patterns depict the importance of structural elements within a stream (stone) to not only slow down the water flow but to create opportunities for aerating the steam, a valuable attribute to healthy water.  The spiral forms also represent the spiritual nature of water as one of the five Platonic elements and water’s place in our own connection to the universe.

The 20 black ceramic vessels hold the water and are sized in relationship to the amount of water that would be collected along the stream corridor (water dispersing at ridges with smaller diameter vessels and water collection at swales with larger diameter vessels).  The dark glazes used in creating the flat ceramic forms was selected so that the reflective quality of water could be employed to help visitors connect personally with both the water and the natural/cultural systems this exhibition represents.