Monday November 12, 7:30pm
Henry G. Sanchez: “Underwaterscapes”
Video works by Henry G. Sanchez
Artist in person

Still from “ALONG A TANGLED BANK” (2018) by Henry G. Sanchez – Image courtesy of the artist

Microscope is happy to welcome back to the gallery Houston-based artist and former Bushwick resident Henry G. Sanchez for a screening of works on video.

The selection of 10 works made between 2013 and 2018 arise from Sanchez’s interest in observing and documenting the human impact on the eco-system, especially on the bodies of water near his home. His attention in these works is concentrated on Bushwick’s English Kills, a tributary of the Newtown Creek Superfund site and on the 31-mile long river Brays Bayou in Harris County, a tributary of the Buffalo Bayou, which flows through Houston.

Mixing creative and scientific approach, serious and amusing tones, and performances for the camera, Sanchez takes us beneath the water’s surface and as close as possible to the forms of life populating the rivers and shorelines, usually unnoticed. Among others, the works in the roughly 60-minute program show the artist catching fish with a landing net, conducting an experiment to determine whether ribbed mussels are able to filter and clean polluted water, making animations of puppets assembled from sediments of English Kills, and placing his videos of contaminated streams in washing machines. You will also find “Edward the Egret” instructing the viewer not to flush the toilet during rainstorm events.

“A motivating force for the ENGLISH KILLS PROJECT was the goal of informing the residents of Bushwick and East Williamsburg about the problems of Newtown Creek… I felt that if people can see the problems of the creek, it can lead to action. For too long this neighborhood of underserved residents of color have been subjected to the health effects of a polluted creek in their environment and to living next door to 40% of New York City’s waste transfer sites. It would be difficult to deny these as clear signals of environmental discrimination.” – HGS

Henry G. Sanchez in attendance and available for a Q&A following the screening.


General admission $8
Students and Members $6

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Henry G. Sanchez is an interdisciplinary, social practice artist and curator whose subject matter concentrates on history, the environment and social justice. He has exhibited his work at various venues in New York City, Turkey, Spain and throughout the U.S. In 2012 Mr. Sanchez founded the ENGLISH KILLS PROJECT, a bio-art and social practice project seeking a transformation of a polluted creek in Brooklyn. It proposes community-based initiatives to introduce bio-remediation in Newtown Creek, a Superfund site. In 2015 he established the Law Office Center for Citizenship and Art (L.O.C.C.A.) (www.loccart.org) in Houston, Texas. Sanchez’s work has been exhibited and screened at Electronic Arts Intermix, NYC; Momenta Art, Brooklyn, NY; Greenpoint Film Festival, Brooklyn; Guggenheim Museum, Soho; McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas, TX; Rooster Gallery, NY; Jersey City Museum, NJ; Here Art Center, NYC; Pera Museum, Istanbul, Turkey; City University of New York; Taller Boriqua Gallery, NYC; Schmidt Center Gallery, Florida Atlantic University; Ben Shahn Center, William Patterson University; and Centro de Arte de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain, among others. Sanchez lives and works in Houston, Texas. He graduated with a MA in International Relations/Political Science from Rutgers University (2000) and with a MFA Art Practice in Interdisciplinary Arts, SVA (2014).

Program:

RIBBED MUSSELS IN NEWTOWN CREEK WATER: 4 HOUR TEST
Video, color, sound, 2016, 4 minutes 9 seconds,
Shown is a video studio ribbed mussel experiment with 2 water samples from English Kills (Newtown Creek – Brooklyn, NY) from the English Kills tributary of Newtown Creek. One vessel is (left) the control sample, the other (right) has three mussels submerged for 4 hours. Examine the clarity of the water with the mussels after the end of the experiment. Can a colony of ribbed mussel throughout this historically polluted waterway provide a natural method for water remediation? This video demonstration is part of the ENGLISH KILLS PROJECT (englishkillsproject.com).

OS PISCIS
Video, color, sound, 2014, 5 minutes 10 seconds
Miniature animals and under-waterscapes from English Kills reveal echoes of forms and movements, both graceful and menacing.

A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT BY EDWARD THE EGRET
Video, color, sound, 2013-2016, 2 minutes 36 seconds
Edward the Egret tells the “humans” in his neighborhood not to flush the toilet during rainstorm events. English Kills and Newtown Creek’s combined sewer overflows empty into the waterway, even during light rains, which contaminates the creek. We “humans” have become the major source of pollution for this Superfund site. (Should you choose this video then I strongly suggest that Dancing Talismans follow in the program. It will help give it context. Both have the puppet animation.)

ENGLISH KILLS 2 @ CHICO’S LAUNDROMAT
Video, color, sound, 2014, 10 minutes 52 seconds
The 2nd annual Chico’s Laundromat screening of English Kills: One of two videos displayed on the public flat screens installed within Chico’s Laundromat on Flushing Avenue. Each video reveals to viewers and Laundromat customers English Kills’ (the southern tributary of Newtown Creek) condition in all seasons and examines the issue of human impacts on its environment and eco-system.

DANCING TALISMANS
Video, color, sound, 2013, 2 minutes 20 seconds
The Trident and Anti-Trident Talismans are made from the sediment of English Kills. They dance in tandem to the music and vision of English Kills. (This video should follow A Public Service Announcement. They provide each other aesthetic context.)

INTO ENGLISH KILLS
Video, color, sound, 2013, 10 minutes 51 seconds
INTO ENGLISH KILLS examines the life in Newtown Creek’s “heart of darkness”. Reflections, observations and real life encounters are “remembered with wonder amongst the overwhelming realities of this strange world of plants and water and silence.”

POND
Video, color, sound, 2017, 1 minutes 28 seconds
POND expresses the intrinsic spiritual connection one can realize with nature when powers of observation and listening are employed in ones surroundings.

ALONG A TANGLED BANK
Video, color, sound, 2018, 8 minutes 55 seconds
Along A Tangled Bank is taken from the shorelines of Brays Bayou, one of the many bayou tributaries of Houston, Texas. Post Harvey bayous are a complex system of native, endangered and invasive species co-existing with the impact of human life and modern demands. Close observations of the wildlife unveil networks of systems and eco-shapes not seen by the naked eye.

BRAYS
Video, color, sound, 2018, 5 minutes 29 seconds
Brays Bayou, one of the many bayou tributaries running through Houston, during the Harvey rain event of 2017. Video was taken along Brays Bayou, one block from the artist’s home.

PLECOSTOMUS
Video, color, sound, 2018, 6 minutes 55 seconds
The Plecostomos (sucker fish) is an invasive species in the waterways of Buffalo Bayou and its connecting tributaries. Brays Bayou is a common nesting ground for the Texas Catfish, which is pushed put by the Plecos and its hording of the riperian shorelines. This video captures my new relationship with this prehistoric looking, aquatic animal.

Still from “RIBBED MUSSELS IN NEWTOWN CREEK WATER: 4 HOUR TEST” (2016) by Henry G. Sanchez – Image courtesy of the artist


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Microscope Gallery Event Series 2018 is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC).