For those ones in Singapore, it is possible today to join the premiere of the documentary “Watermark” directed by Jennifer Baichwal, Nick de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky at Sundaram Tagore Gallery (Gillman Barracks, 7pm, Mr. Burtynsky will be present).
Trailer :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVGivCFNihM
This is the first time ever that Edward Burtynsky has a solo exhibition in Singapore. I had visited the show last week, a day signed by an annoying but blessed heavy rain after months of drought. But the magnificence of the water was well contained into Sundaram Tagore Gallery.
“Water” is the latest series by Canadian photographer Burtynsky and it is immediately obvious how ambitious and impressive is this project. It’s totally impossible to not ask yourself questions when you are in front of the huge perfectly printed photos or just leafing through the catalogue published by Steidl.
The book is available also for iPad.
http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/site_contents/Books/Water_App.html
The questions may concern on the impact of the images, such as on “the scale and impact of manufacturing and human consumption on the world’s water supplies”. Burtynsky’s large-scale photoraphy projects have been focused on other daily-used materials seen with a unique and uncommon point of view and breathtaking landscapes precedently: abandoned mines and quarries, ship-breaking sites in Bangladesh, nickel tailings in Ontario, oil, coal, steel, manufacturing and recycling in China.
Divided in chapters, “Water” has a sadly beginning. In 2010 Burtynsky documented he BP’s Deepwater Horizon tragic oil spill and it is clear what the man can do with the water: disasters. Men can also control the water to generate power (from ancient Stepwells in India to new huge dam projects in China, through modern canals for agriculture or aesthetic daily life in California or Arizona). Then, it’s the Pivot Irrigation series that are the most able to create suggestions, both for the powerful and simmetric perfection of the images, almost abstract, and the ability of the men to re-invent the very huge landscapes for his own use and consume.
Another important chapter of “Water” is, not accidentally the last one, dedicated to theme of source. “Burtynsky’s journey to British Columbia and Iceland, places where a critical stage in the hydrological cycle takes place: the mountains, containing glaciers and snow. They are the first landscapes in over thirty years Burtynsky took focussing specifically on pristine wilderness, instead of the imposition of human systems upon it.”
Exhibition
Water
Photography by Edward Burtynsky
7 March – 6 April 2014
Sundaram Tagore Gallery
01-05 Gillman Barracks
Singapore
http://www.sundaramtagore.com
