Vanishing Point
Critical Distance Vol 13:3
Jarod Charzewski and Colleen Ludwig
January 18 – February 23, 2008
Vanishing Point
Vanishing Point
A response by Milena Placentile
When discussing their work, Jarod Charzewski and Colleen Ludwig are ambivalent about referring to themselves as activists. Yet, as creative and concerned individuals, they engage in processes that raise questions to present critical issues and ideas in ways that provoke multi-faceted contemplation.
Transcending politically imposed geographical boundaries, Lake Winnipeg’s visible surface and its water¬shed (which is astonishingly forty times larger than the lake itself), makes contact with four Canadian provinces and four U.S. States. The declining condition of the lake, and its international reach, underscore environmental pollution as something that affects everyone, everywhere. The lack of affirmative direction to protect it under¬scores the difficulty of forging cooperation between governments and other competing interests.
Vanishing Point is a mixed-media installation in two movements that addresses the ongoing degradation of Lake Winnipeg. It expresses the physical character of the massive nearby landmark and draws attention to its status as geographical feature held hostage by a lack of understanding, funding, and accountability.
Charzewski and Ludwig’s installation remarkably transports the psychological aspect of water into the gal¬lery by harnessing an aesthetic strategy aimed at heightening phenomenological awareness of how space is quantified within the econo-political discipline of geography. Speaking to the ability of water to flow freely into any form, and to its tremendous potential weight and volume, the first component of Vanishing Point recalls a powerful force caught in time. Its deep blue mass appears capable of washing gallery visitors away. The work is thus confrontational yet, at the same time, compelling enough for audiences to desire becoming lost within. It elicits memories of water and prompts instinctual response.
The sheer physicality of the first component fulfils an effectively dualistic purpose. Its scale within the gal¬lery is consuming and it acknowledges the tininess of each individual person. At the same time, its orientation slices through space to let audiences locate themselves within the landscape it signifies. Most viewers seem prompted to absorb the structure from a distance before navigating a passage toward its apex at the back of the gallery: a freestanding white wall covered with topological markings in graphite.
Walking into the installation is like swooping into a digital rendering of the Earth presented via the con¬venient click of a mouse. Once top-secret data, satellite photos are now a common means by which we can recognize the sheer vastness of our planet. But we’re not insignificant specks. Our individual being, and the resources used to sustain each one of us, are very real things and that is an important point of consciousness this work aims to raise.
Cables below the ceiling establish a grid from which forms approximating a nearby major system of lakes and rivers are suspended. They recall the manner by which the world has been carved into measures of latitude and longitude, time zones, and territory. The lines are imposed human constructs that reject the natural, organic forms of the Earth itself. The wall stands in a reservoir and serves as a surface down which water trickles in thin and shifting streams. Over time, the water will wash away the graphite and, as it circulates through the fountain system, it will become dirty as a result of collecting material… just like a natural water system, moving across land marred by unrestrained sites of industry.
The notion that the work extends beyond the confines of the exhibition space is intentional and may serve as a metaphor for the status of the work as an idea. It is a reflection of the outside world within a place where such concepts are identified, discussed, and later carried back into the world via the minds of each person who has witnessed and considered the piece.
Charzewski and Ludwig met at the University of Minnesota and were drawn by a mutual interest in installation. Despite backgrounds in sculpture and media arts respectively, commonalities included interests in experimental sites and materials, multiples, realizing imaginative places, and most significantly, the relationship between human physicality and space.
Charzewski and Ludwig typically produce two distinct pieces joined by dynamic process-oriented production emphasizing conversation and experimentation. They work with different approaches and in different tempera¬ments. Charzewski prefers to embrace intuitive and tactile principles whereas Ludwig is more cerebral and intent on finding logical strategies. Furthermore, Charzewski tends to discuss his practice in formalist terms and has, at times, translated data collected via participatory methodologies. Ludwig, alternatively, expresses abstracted narratives and welcomes the interplay of natural elements such as water and air. The artists recognize that by presenting their work in proximity, the arising dialogue generates meaning. With Vanishing Point, they have moved from producing simultaneously to collaboratively.
The artists were once content to let their work speak for itself, but are now interested in making their inspi¬rations, motivations, and processes as present as possible. They explain that when submitting proposals, they offer to create new, site-specific projects based on a localized context. Working from floor plans and models, research for Vanishing Point was supplemented by online resources, which helped Ludwig understand the geographical environment Charzewski knew so well. Pouring over maps, the artists were struck by the com¬manding presence of Lake Winnipeg. They soon learned about its deteriorating condition due to high levels of phosphorous and nitrates, and were struck by the paradox of people seeking to preserve the lake while, at the same time, exploiting it.
For the first time, the artists sought to express a real world situation, and this may possibly have led to Vanish¬ing Point’s polished aesthetic. The installation recalls models found in science centres but, while such didactic materials aim merely to disseminate information, the artists seek to confront viewers with the challenge of moving forward.
At what point will the seemingly infinite richness of the Earth vanish? At what point will a critical mass acknowledge our crisis and adopt systems that put environmental protection first? The warning signs are readily apparent and it is clear which human activities are destructive and which are sustainable. By reminding us that even vast resources need meticulous management if we hope to survive, Charzewski and Ludwig invite audiences to do something before it’s too late.
LAKE
WINNIPEG
are we too late for ecosystem sustainability?
A response by Stephen Page
In Jarod Charzewski and Colleen Ludwig’s installation, “Vanishing Point”, the artists pose various questions concerning the future of changing ecosystems, water resources and our interaction with the environment around us. All of these elements are of particular relevance to the current situation in Lake Winnipeg.
Over the past few decades, scientists have observed significant changes in the state of Lake Winnipeg, which has in turn spawned an environmental awareness for many Manitobans and Canadians. Since the 1990s, algal blooms on this great lake have increased in size, frequency and intensity: a threatening indicator of a deteriorating ecosystem.1 While these algal blooms have often been linked to increased human activities in the watershed (e.g. municipal sewage, septic fields, industrial discharge, livestock manure, agriculture, urban runoff)2, there is now evidence that suggests climate related events may be having a more significant and pressing influence on the occurrence and extent of these algal blooms.3 But ecosystems are complex entities, and how one views change is largely determined by one’s perspective.
Recent scientific research has suggested that Lake Winnipeg is becoming more eutrophic, a term describing an ecosystem exposed to excessive nutrient enrichment (generally phosphorus and nitrogen) and the consequential excessive algal growth. These conditions have led to large unsightly algal blooms fouling fishing nets, washing up on recreational beaches and increasing the prominence of certain species of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) that sometimes produce neurotoxins and hepato (liver) toxins. Poisonings of wildlife, pets, livestock and humans have occurred in other lakes from the ingestion of these toxins during recreational contact or from insufficiently treated drinking water, making this issue a potentially serious health hazard. 4 5
Upon entering the gallery, Vanishing Point’s first impressions of depth and exaggerated perspective of the familiar provincial water bodies immediately conveys a message of largeness and abundance. As you glide through the myriad of lakes suspended in their deep blue state, one is compelled to quantify the vast amount of fresh water within our legal borders. Charzewski and Ludwig’s creative use of an altered landscape perspective, with northerly locations represented on a true scale and the southern zones drastically exaggerated, strongly emphasises the influence of the densely populated regions of the lower latitudes. In reality, the south basin of Lake Winnipeg comprises only 12% of the lake’s surface area, however Vanishing Point’s south basin depiction gives the impression it represents well over half of the lake. Intentional or not, this instrument works well as a reflection on the influence of the human presence in the southern regions of the watershed (6.6 million people live in the watershed, of which 80% live in major urban centres, predominantly in the southern latitudes)6.
What is missing from the experience though is the impact that the entire watershed has on the aquatic network presented. Lake Winnipeg has the 2nd largest watershed in Canada (953,000km2 second to the Mackenzie Delta at 1,800,000km2) but the largest land drainage area to lake surface area ratio of any lake in the world.7 This extremely high ratio (40 km2 of land per 1km2 of water) amplifies the effect of land use practises and inflates the potential for nutrients, contaminants and other land-based derivatives to enter the Lake. With a watershed spanning four provinces and four states, one can’t be cognisant of the changing ecosystem without considering the effects and contributions of upstream sources. This significant influence of the watershed combined with the complex interactions of humans and geology yields a very unique ecosystem, which without thorough scientific investigation is a challenge to fully understand.
While the Lake Winnipeg watershed is undeniably large, researchers have concluded that some areas in the basin have more impact on Lake Winnipeg than others, specifically the Red River basin. Of the rivers that feed Lake Winnipeg, both the Winnipeg and Red River have had significant increases in flow over the past 100 years, meaning more water is flowing off the land and into our rivers. Between 1960 and 1980, Manitoba drained 75% of its wetlands in favour of agricultural terrain. The loss of these wetlands has increased the rate at which water moves off the land, and arguably bringing with it a source of herbicide and pesticide residues as well as sediment and nutrients from croplands and livestock activities. Some areas in the Red River basin have had over a 30% increase in precipitation in the 90s (compared to the 80s). It is obvious ecosystems are changing, but what is the impact? From computational modelling of the major river systems combined with the water chemistry of the rivers, we estimate that most of the observed increase in nutrients in Lake Winnipeg can be attributed to the changes in flow from the Red River, something we cannot easily control. The last decade has seen some of the highest river flows of the last 100 years, which may explain the sudden changes in size and frequency of the algal blooms that has brought so much attention to Lake Winnipeg in recent years. If so and despite our best intentions, Lake Winnipeg water quality may remain primarily at the mercy of weather and climate.
Charzewski and Ludwig ask a fundamental question, “Can we imagine governments collaborating to protect what is left of our environment?” The Government of Manitoba recently passed legislation, the Phosphorus Reduction Act, which will restrict the phosphorus content of fertilizers applied to lawns and virtually eliminate phosphorus8 from household dishwasher detergents sold in Manitoba by July 2010.9 While innovative public education programs and environmental legislation based on current scientific research is moving in the right direction, other government initiatives often confuse the issue. The fact that the City of Winnipeg purposely adds phosphorus to its drinking water to control lead in Winnipeg’s tap water10 sends a completely different message. Since provincial and national borders are artificial constructs, nature is not aware of them. Are those upstream and isolated from the media exposure of Lake Winnipeg’s ailments, aware of their role in affecting an aquatic ecosystem that resides in another province or even another country? Does, “out of sight—out of mind”, direct our actions when it comes to the environment?
Clearly there is a need for deeper understanding of how our ecosystems are changing, and what, if anything we can do about it. Our collective delayed response to these changing ecosystems has crept up on us, and we have paid too little attention for too long. Under our current governance structure it is up to our governments to erase the isolating effect of borders when it comes to issues of water. As we implement our management strategies, we must take into consideration that some areas of the watershed have a larger impact than others, and focus our efforts accordingly. But if these recently observed climatic and human-induced changes are to continue, adaptation may become just as important as mitigation.
For more information on the artists:
www.jarodcharzewski.com
www.colleenludwig.com
Milena Placentile is an independent curator and the Program¬ming Coordinator at Video Pool Media Arts Centre. She holds a Master of Museum Studies from the University of Toronto and has worked with various contemporary art centres including Peacock Visual Arts (Aberdeen), SMART Project Space (Amsterdam), and The Ottawa Art Gallery.
Stephen Page received his Bachelor of Science in 1996 from the University of Manitoba with a major in Biochemistry. He has worked in Malawi, Uganda, the Northwest Territories, Ontario and Manitoba studying freshwater lakes and their interactions with the environment. He is currently an Aquatic Chemist with the Experimental Lakes Area, a world renowned research facility studying the effects of climate change, natural variability and the impacts of human activities on lakes and their watersheds.
Notes
1. Lake Winnipeg Algal bloom Satellite images can be seen at: www.umanitoba.ca/~gmccullo/LWsat.html
2. Reducing Nutrient Loading to Lake Winnipeg and its Watershed, Lake Winnipeg Stewardship Board
Report to the Minister of Water Stewardship, December 2006 www.lakewinnipeg.org/web/downloads/LWSB_December_2006_Report.3.pdf
3. Modelling Lake Winnipeg Nutrient Concentrations, S.Page, Hesslein, R., Stainton, M. March 2006
Presentation at the International Water Institute www.internationalwaterinstitute.org/forms/IWI2007/B2%20Climate%20Change,%20Runoff,%20and%20Lake%20Winnipeg,%20Eutrophication%20Part%202.pdf
4. www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/pubs/water-eau/cyanobacterial_toxins/toxin-toxines_e.html#exposure
5. Kotak, B.G., Lam, A.K.-Y., Prepas, E.E., Kenefick, S.L., and Hrudey, S.E. 1995. Variability of the hepatotoxin,
microcystin-LR, in hypereutrophic drinking water lakes. J. Phycol. 31: 248–263.
6. Estimated from Statistics Canada demographic statistics, October 2004 and US Bureau of Census data
7. Lake Winnipeg Research Consortium website: www.lakewinnipegresearch.org
8. contain no more than 0.5%
9. http://www.gov.mb.ca/seeinggreen/water/legislation.html
10. winnipeg.ca/waterandwaste/water/leadOrthophosphate.stm
