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'HOW TO WATER'

A mirage or an oasis? One thing is certain: this exhibition is refreshing.
All images by Theo Triantafyllidis

Since the start of California's unprecedented drought, state governments and authorities have taken drastic measures to tackle the water crisis. With calls to cut back on domestic water use on one hand, and preservation efforts like launching millions of shade balls into L.A.'s largest reservoir on the other, most Californians appear to be deeply concerned and want to mobilize—even the new media art community.

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While last month, Sterling Crispin generously offered a way to survive the natural disaster by providing his Giant Survivalist Totems, a few days ago, Shelley Holcomb and Theo Triantafyllidis teamed-up to put together HOW TO WATER, a multimedia group exhibition that offers an ironic and critical perspective on today's cultures of mass internet and tech consumption—pursuits taken with reckless abandon while our most precious resource is rapidly being depleted. Through this widespread journey, viewers are invited to explore and question materiality, fluidity, and temporality, shared characteristics of both the internet and water.

Video by Jesse Fleming & Theo Triantafyllidis

Taking over the Eastside International space, the show, supported by UCLA Design Media Arts, brings together some of the most creative forces in the industry, including Adam Ferriss, Brenna Murphy, Eva Papamargariti, Sam Newell, and Vince Mckelvie, to name but a few, to create an audiovisual experience that drenches audiences in a utopian narrative that takes place where technologies and the internet blur the line between oasis and mirages.

“The digital content we endlessly consume moves steadily onward like a babbling brook. Are we descending into an abyss of increasingly homogenous, dopamine-triggering listicle clickbait? Or are we surfing along a rising tide of awareness and togetherness, finally shattering our own solipsisms and creative limitations?" Holcomb asks The Creators Project. "The works consider these notions by conflating the basic characteristics of water with found media from the internet and visual software including GIFs, YouTube videos, live webcam video and WebGL shaders."

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"Even the overall amalgam of projected videos was made to present the other 16 works, along with the show’s visitors (seen through an interactive work by Alex Rickett and John Brumely), as though they are all immersed in water," she adds.

HOW TO WATER is on view until August 28th by appointment only. A closing reception is also planned for August 27th which will include 1-2 performances. To make an appointment email the gallery at info@eastsideinternational.com.

Full lineup: Adam Ferriss, Alex Rickett, Brenna Murphy, Eva Papamargariti, Ezra Miller, Gergo Kovacs, Joe Hamilton, John Brumley, Julieta Gil, Katie Torn, Rachel Archibald, Sam Newell, Scott Andrew, Steve Gurysh, Theo Triantafyllidis, Vince Mckelvie

Click here to learn more aout HOW TO WATER.

Related:

Survive the Californian Drought with Giant Survivalist Totems

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