August 29th - October 7th
Closing Reception + Artist Talk October 6th, 4-6pm
In 2014 it was reported that an unknown quantity of the carcinogen “dioxane 1,4” had leaked into the Cape Fear River Basin contaminating the drinking water of over one million people. Over the past eight years numerous spills of up to 18 times the EPA recommended parts per billion have been documented as originating in Greensboro tributaries and thus traveling downstream to the Atlantic. Due to previous spills and lack of action by the local government, the Department of Environmental Quality has entered a Special Order by Consent with Greensboro to monitor the city’s detection and notification protocols of future spills. Yet, despite the known risks of liver/kidney damage and death, dioxane 1,4 remains unregulated at the city, state, and federal level. While the City of Greensboro refuses to release the name of the company responsible for the largest spills or how much was discharged, it is known that the synthetic chemical 1,4 dioxane is a by-product of dyes used in the textile industry.
This project will investigate the ways in which the city is complicit in violence, both against humans and the environment, in support of the industries that fund the City. Immersing the viewer in the waters laden with unseen state-sanctioned violence; a soundscape and corresponding projections explore what can’t be captured on film, that which slips by unnoticed and the trust we place in images and institutions. As a highly miscible (i.e. mixes well) substance in water that does not readily biodegrade in the environment, dioxane 1,4 is virtually undetectable without scientific equipment, however in large volumes it has a distinct smell. Often described as sickly sweet like overripe fruit, the scent of dioxane 1,4 will waft through the gallery, subtle yet present signaling that not all dangers can be seen. Antagonistic kinetic sculptures will lurch at and splash viewers challenging our assumptions that our water nourishes our bodies when in reality it depletes them. Through overlapping social, environmental, and industrial concerns this installation illustrates that all local actions flow out to sea.
In collaboration with:
Marcus Brathwaite - Sound Design
Kevin Vanek - Metal Fabrication
Nick Rutz - Image Fabrication
Kathleen Block - Assistant Videographer
Badar Jahangir Kayani - Kinetic Engineering and Fabrication
This project made possible by:
UNCG College of Visual and Performing Arts Dean’s Research Initiative Fund
ArtsGreensboro Artist Support Grant”
BIO
Kelley O’Brien is an interdisciplinary artist working in the American South, with her background in architecture and design Kelley’s work negotiates boundaries between industrial and “natural” landscapes, through a feminist perspective, to explore cultural links between gender hierarchy and the domination of the natural world. Political and environmental systems intertwine to form the core of her practice, often taking the form of time-based media and installations to offer a glimpse into personal and collective experiences across spaces of heightened social and environmental importance.
She has exhibited at the CICA Museum (Korea), National College of Art and Design (Ireland), Stroboskop Art Space (Warsaw) as well as Transformer Station, McDonough Museum of Art and The Everson Museum of Art in the United States. Kelley has been awarded grants from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, ArtsGreensboro, Ohio Arts Council, Wexford Arts Council, and a Fulbright Scholarship to the Philippines. She attended residencies at Green Papaya Art Space in the Philippines, the Irish Museum of Art in Dublin, Laboratory Spokane, Wassaic Project, and the Scottish Sculpture Workshop in Lumsden.
Her artistic practice extends into her academic and curatorial research through collaborative projects with Francis Halsall under the title “Mapping Systems.” Collectively they have held workshops, lecture courses, and curated residencies in Ireland, the United States and the Philippines. Through her art, curatorial, and collaborative research practices, O’Brien seeks to highlight precarious and indeterminate environments as a political act to give power to untold histories and providing underrepresented perspectives as alternative ways to critically engage with our ecosystems locally and globally.