Parrish Art Museum To Present Weekend Focused On Climate Change And Water As A Resource

(Re) Sources: Symposium on Water and Climate Change, a two day symposium, will take place at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill on Friday, September 22 and Saturday, September 23. The programming will include workshops for both adults and children as well as a panel discussion that explores water from various vantage points and an immersive multisensory experience.

Water—A (Re)Source of Inspiration will kick-off the symposium on Friday at 6 p.m. Panelists John Bouvier, Southampton Town Councilman and Member of the Conservation Board, Alexis Rockman, artist, and Edwina von Gal, landscape designer and Founder/President of Perfect Earth Project, will speak about their varied viewpoints of water and climate change. Joseph Shaw, executive editor of the Press News Group, will moderate the discussion.

“I am very excited to be hosting such creative minds, whose work and expertise, as diverse as it is, is committed to helping us rethink our relationship to nature,” shared Curator of Special Project Corinne Erni. “In the wake of two hurricanes affecting this country with devastating force, the link to climate change couldn’t be clearer and addressing the topic couldn’t be more urgent.”

On Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Open Studio: Water Lab! will feature tours of the galleries, hands-on experiments, and the opportunity to create your own art that revolves around the vital resource.

On Saturday evening, the Parrish will present The Watery Owl of Minerva, a new live multi-projection and sound performance by the New York-based artist collective and orchestra Optipus. The outdoor experience will examine three movements by pairing original and found imagery – like hand-painted slides, Super 8mm and 16mm films, overhead projections, and digital video – with nature related original music and sound.

“Optipus brings a special dimension to the conversation about nature and climate change, one that is becoming increasingly urgent with the devastating news from Houston and Florida to South Asia,” Erni explained. “Art touches people at a different level, and experiencing a spectacle like this can bring us closer to the meaning of protecting our environment.”

21 artists will contribute to the hour-long performance.

“The performance will contrast and superimpose the urban and human environment with the oceanic, undersea universe, layering the wetlands and waterfowl in loops of liquid light and patterns of natural design,” added Bradley Eros, who composed the cinema event. “This expanded cinema’s three-part composition begins with coloration and bio-rhythms dominating the visual flow. The middle section, with bodies, animals and insects abundant, the dance of flowering plants, and the swirl of the earth’s aqua-forms amid the range of landscapes and terrains, is built layer upon layer of activity and element. The third part returns to abstraction, this time via pure light and color, swimming through a template of multiple liquid lenses, for a dynamic finale of shapes and chromatic pulses.”

Admission ranges from free to $20.

Parrish Art Museum is located at 279 Montauk Highway in Water Mill. For more information, call 631-283-2118 or visit parrishart.org.