Ways of Water by Helena Hunter and Mark Peter Wright certainly holds more challenging art in terms of concept, history, and artistic mediums. This exhibition plays on concepts of memory, culture, health, and loss by exploring local water infrastructures across Yorkshire and Derbyshire, whilst following the impacts and implications of the 1832 Sheffield Cholera Epidemic both historically and contemporarily.
The unsanitary water conditions behind the epidemic are denoted in the exhibition and an emphasis is placed on water as an essential, life-sustaining element. A mixture of sculptures, videography, film, and photography is utilized and moulded in a thought-provoking manner, one that evokes exploration and consideration of the maintenance and care which water calls for, and the links between that and human experience, community health, and life. The essence captured by displays of water infrastructure sites are intended to illicit focus on memory and monument as well as highlight the connection between objects and the remembrance of events culturally and historically.
The exhibition implores visitors to consider how we remember past events, culturally, what objects, rituals, and beliefs maintain personal and collective memory, and how the past can inform future action. This exhibition also honours and commemorates the lives of those who passed away due to the Cholera outbreak. One of the visitors shared an endearing thought about those people, were wondering if people who have passed from Cholera are able to witness this gallery from above or in spirit. “I wonder if they would feel like this gallery represents some of their experience,” they added.
People seem to see and comprehend the exhibition as one full of individual, unique art pieces that come together to tell a story and spark reflection rather as a single, collective gallery which is effective in communicating the message this exhibition writes. It pushes people to converse with their minds and memories, then with one another’s through a lens of culture, history, and lived experience; that in itself is beyond memorable.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Ways of Water is on display in the Millennium Gallery until May 12th
