A panel of artists and scientists explored water mapping, history and use. Discussions focused on issues related to the watershed in Northeast Ohio. Artist Duke Riley exhibiting concurrently at MOCA Cleveland, and faculty members Donna Webb, ceramics, Matthew Kolodziej, painting, Deborah King, geography, Peter Niewiarowski, integrated bioscience.
From Duke Riley:
My work addresses the prospect of residual but forgotten unclaimed frontiers on the edge and inside overdeveloped urban areas, and their unsuspected autonomy. I am interested in the struggle of marginal peoples to sustain independent spaces within all-encompassing societies, the tension between individual and collective behavior, the conflict with institutional power. I pursue an alternative view of hidden borderlands and their inhabitants through drawing, printmaking, mosaic, sculpture, performative interventions, and video structured as complex multimedia installations.
I often work in the tradition of field naturalists, seeking and gathering data, artifacts, and specimens outdoors, transporting them inside for closer observation and study, displaying them in museum-like diorama settings. I combine populist myths and reinvented historical obscurities with contemporary social dilemmas, connecting past and present, drawing attention to unsolved issues. Throughout my projects I profile the space where water meets the land, traditionally marking the periphery of urban society, what lies beyond rigid moral constructs, a sense of danger and possibility.
For more information on his work, visit http://www.dukeriley.info
