The Gowanus Dredgers Boathouse has been transformed into an underwater dreamscape with Benthic, Brooklyn-based artist Bonnie Ralston’s site-specific installation featuring suspended biomorphic paper sculptures, suggesting organisms found in the lower depths of the Gowanus Canal.
"Benthic is inspired by the canal and its resiliency,” said Ralston. “In spite of everything we've done to it over the past 200-plus years—including physical disfiguration, neglect, and outright abuse—it continues to support life and community.”
Composed of discarded packing material, stone sludge, rusted metal, and salt, Ralston’s 140 meticulously crafted sculptures vary in size, shape, shade, articulation, and appendage. The extraordinary menagerie spins and sways in the air, animating each creature, giving them a sense of realness and character. “The suspended paper forms are inspired by the variety of aquatic organisms I've encountered under the lens,” noted Ralston, a microscopy enthusiast.
Benthic is accompanied by a video projection of microscopic organisms found in the Gowanus Canal. Ralston recently recorded the mesmerizing microscopic inhabitants of water samples collected from the notoriously polluted waterbody.
On Saturday, August 20 (2pm to 4pm), Ralston will be joined at the Boathouse by Jay Holmes, President of the New York Microscopial Society and Senior Coordinator for the American Museum of Natural History, for “Microscopy and Art!” Attendees will have the opportunity to explore water samples from the canal using scopes and magnifiers and then create a field guide of the Gowanus creatures they view.
“For me, close and focused observation—through a microscope, a loupe, or a pair of binoculars—is an invitation to get lost and revel in the beauty, mystery, and infinite complexity of living systems,” Ralston said. “With the shift in scale comes an opportunity to see (and reconsider) the everyday with new eyes.”
Ralston received her BFA from Hartford Art School and finds inspiration in the natural sciences. Her sculptures and works on paper are composed of repurposed materials she finds on the streets of Brooklyn. “The intrinsic limitations of my chosen media—street refuse, clay, oxides, salt, and water—challenge me to engage fully with what is in front of me,” according to her artist’s statement. “Not unlike a scientist seeking ultimate truths, the promise of discovery (about materials, process, and self) drives my practice.”
Ralston's installation combines and connects her interests in art, science, microscopy, ecology and sustainability. The artist hopes viewers will "come away with an increased curiosity about and respect for the places and spaces we take for granted.” Learn more about Bonnie Ralston at www.bonnieralston.com.
Benthic by Bonnie Ralston
Gowanus Dredgers Boathouse, 165 2nd Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231
August 6 – August 27, 2022 | Saturdays (1pm – 5pm)
Opening Reception: Saturday, August 6, 6pm to 8pm.
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