<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=4G0SoP_0wF6Zlq100" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4G0SoP_0wF6Zlq100" width="960" height="640" ></figure>A block away from their tributary, faithful brushstrokes, steel casts, and gelatin prints echo the might and impact of the Hudson River. Together, they formulate an investigation into its history, present, and future.The Wallach Art Gallery’s newest show, “Shifting Shorelines: Art, Industry, and Ecology along the Hudson River,” opened Oct. 5 at the Lenfest Center for the Arts on Columbia’s Manhattanville campus. The show features a number of multimedia pieces that engage the relationship between humans and the Hudson River.The exhibition is loosely separated into thematic sections including industry, transportation, and geology. The first section that greets visitors is the landscape section, which prominently features paintings by Thomas Cole, Aaron Douglas, and Thomas Moran. This section introduces one of the fundamental tensions throughout the show: between placid imaginations of the Hudson River, like Cole’s, and its actual state as a bustling sight of development, represented by Moran and Douglas.While the section does an excellent job of articulating this tension and introducing viewers to the sorts of nuances that hide in the history of the Hudson, it fails to support meaningful dialogue between the painted works and the pieces of Indigenous history that sit adjacent to the section, establishing an uncomfortable dynamic. Aside from function, the exhibition does not grant the beaded dance regalia by Reva Fuhrman, the Algonquin Moccasins, and the pebble net sinkers valuable historical or cultural context, reducing the works to one-dimensional reminders of Indigenous people’s legacy in the region. Unoriented as substantial contributors to our collective relationship with the river in the same way as Cole’s, Douglas’, or Thomas’ works, they are inadequately addressed artifacts ultimately separated from the show’s more prominent themes.This failure to instantiate meaningful exchange between works is reiterated several times throughout the show, notably in the section titled “Piers.” Though the show brings in astounding pieces such as Every Ocean Hughes’ “The Piers Untitled (#4), (#13), (#5), and (#7),” as well as Alvin Baltrop’s “The Piers,” it fails to coherently bridge the gap between the works within the section and other sections. Granted the same curatorial function as titles like transportation and environmental change, piers are understood as a sort of transcendental subject. Yet four of the section’s six works specifically memorialize the piers as a natal site for queer culture in the 1970s and 80s. As a result, the distinction between the piers as significant and recurring over the course of the Hudson River’s history and as crucial because of their queer cultural moment becomes muddled. Ultimately, the exchange between works established by the section left the reason for a separate section dedicated only to piers unarticulated.In addition to its failings in establishing conversations within the show, “Shifting Shorelines” also gravely missteps in handling what conversations are not in the show. For example, the strangest curatorial decision is including a single small white poster, which mimics the style of the large blue posters that delineate the different sections, with the title “Slavery.” The decision to make this poster smaller and thus less significant goes unexplained. As a result, the section dedicated to the remembrance of enslaved people on the Hudson is relegated secondary to sections like marshes and geology. Whether this relegation articulates a stance that the culture of enslavement contributed little to the history of the region and human environmental impact, or if the comparatively minuscule series of six works by Jean-Marc Superville Sovak in this section did not warrant an equivalent designation, the decision reflects a glaring failure on the part of the show to adequately address the legacies of slavery.Moreover, similar to the poorly integrated pieces of Indigenous culture, the choice to separate into a distinct category Sovak’s “a-Historical Landscapes,” works that impose figures from anti-slavery almanacs and abolitionist tracts onto the landscape drawings, creates the sense that they somehow do not have anything meaningful to contribute to the other conversations happening elsewhere in the show. Thus, again, they are relegated to a status of lesser significance.Despite these curatorial shortcomings, the show successfully highlights several notable pieces that speak to particular histories of the Hudson River. One of these pieces is “Freeborn Trails (North Star),” another work by Sovak. The piece features bricks placed on a base made of river stones arranged in the shape of a star. The work evokes both the quilted iconography associated with the Underground Railroad and the history of brickmaking, a popular profession for free Black people in the Hudson Valley. The dynamic work essentializes the show’s overarching message as it bridges the natural and human histories produced by the river.Another standout piece is Marie Lorenz’s “Jet Ski,” which uses cast waterborne detritus to deconstruct a jet ski similar to those Lorenz sees in the waters of the lower Hudson River. The piece introduces the eerie sense that the river, having existed long before all of us, will outlive us and consume the tools we have used to degrade it. The skeleton-like structure, reminiscent of what might be found in a natural history museum, makes viewers reflect on the histories the waters will preserve. Placed next to Sovak’s “Freeborn Trails,” the two pieces remind us of the ever-evolving influence of humans on nature and vice versa.In the end, “Shifting Shorelines” highlights several important works that invite viewers to contemplate the ever-evolving symbiosis between humans and nature. However, because of several confusing curatorial decisions and an almost overwhelming number of disparate pieces, the show comes up short of the high expectations previously set by the Wallach Art Gallery.“Shifting Shorelines” is on view at the Lenfest Center for the Arts until Jan. 15, 2025.Deputy Arts &amp; Culture Editor Liam Downey can be contacted at liam.downey@columbiaspectator.com. Follow Spectator on X @ColumbiaSpec.Follow Spectator’s Arts &amp; Culture section on Instagram @ArtsatSpec.Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter and like Spectator on Facebook.</div></body>

Mountain View, CA

NewsBreak

Review: Wallach Art Gallery explores the history of the Hudson River in ‘Shifting Shorelines: Art, Industry, and Ecology along the Hudson River’

A block away from their tributary, faithful brushstrokes, steel casts, and gelatin prints echo the might and impact of the Hudson River. Together, they formulate an investigation into its history, present, and future. The Wallach Art Gallery’s newest show, “Shifting Shorelines: Art, Industry, and Ecology along the Hudson River,” opened...