Source (Water Sonettos), 2012

(7) Columns
Dimensions: 6.5'-9' x 13" x 17"D (Installation dimensions variable)
paper, photographs, sound, steel, textiles
Displayed at In/Flux Gallery, Baltimore MD.

Source is composed of seven elliptical columns that are covered in wax and indigo dyed West African textiles. Each column contains a sensor which triggers a sound component, from a trio of sound compositions called "Water Sonettos" as visitors walk among them.

The sounds were recorded during my visit to the Dogon villages of Andjoubolo, Pouroly, Soroly, and Sibi Sibi in Mali, and capture conversations with women in the YAGTU shallot co-operative. Photographs of the women, along with transcripts of the recorded conversations are displayed near the columns. Contributing to an already extant relationship between US Lutherans and the Dogon community, this project was sponsored by the Lutheran World Relief Organization as an outcropping of more general relief-work that addresses shared mission statements of broadening awareness of issues connected to water, women's empowerment and poverty reduction. A main tenant of the partnership was to reinforce ties between the two communities through telling the story of women's stewardship of water in Mali by way of art, performance, and public programming.