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Chanhassen, MN (March 17)- The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is proud to announce its 2009 summer exhibition, Waterosity: Go Green with a Splash, opening June 6. What's bubbling up? Fresh thinking about people, plants and water. Bringing together the voices of artists, scientists and horticulturalists, Waterosity will celebrate this most precious resource through thought-provoking and playful installations and exhibits.
"We're very excited about this exhibition," says Mary Meyer, interim Arboretum director. "Water is a vital resource and we must preserve it for future generations. Waterosity will be both fun and informative."
A key element of Waterosity will be an outdoor artwalk comprising 10 juried art installations that explore the gifts of water. The winning designs and designers - culled from nearly 100 entries - are as follows:
Watershed by Seitu Ken Jones of St. Paul. Watershed is a space for quiet meditation on dynamic natural forces. The installation rests on a pontoon platform in the Arboretum's iris pond, allowing one to feel the movement of water. A map at your feet and interpretive elements describe water's journey.
uppet Pond: A Future for Frogs by Richard Bonk of Minneapolis. Human-sized frog puppets float camouflaged on a pond's surface and when activated by human viewers they leap into the air for an amphibian encounter. This fun installation carries a serious message about the environment. Collaborator: Heart of the Beast Theatre.
Take Back the Tap: Protect Our Environment by Debra A. Ensteness (Landscapes by Dae of West St. Paul) and Sheila Hawthorne (Hawthorne Landscape Designs, Inver Grove Heights). A jumbo water bottle holding thousands of discarded water bottles communicates a timely message about the environmental consequences of disposable water bottles. The exhibit is currently on display at the Galleria in Edina. At the Arboretum, it will be placed in front of the Learning Center and it will be designed so that visitors can walk through it and engage in environmental messages.
Simple Lines by Mike Helbing of Berwyn, Ill. This simple and elegant water sculpture communicates the beauty of nature. Artist inspirations were fiddlehead ferns, leaf veins and tree limbs and other shapes in nature.
The Iris Pond Monster by Bruce Lemke of Orono. This fantasy monster lurks just below the surface of the pond, its fearsome head and serpentine back visible to viewers. The oceans are the Earth's last frontier and scientists every day are discovering new creatures in their depths.
Watershed: Tracing the Path by Laura Lyndgaard and Anne Okerman Gardner of Minneapolis. Streaming fabric "paths" delineate the flow of water toward Green Heron Pond, providing a lesson in watersheds.
Blue Thumb - Planting for Clean Water by Dawn Pape and Julie Westerlund. Planter-trellises and other features will provide ideas for eco-friendly landscaping that can reduce water pollution and storm water runoff. Pape is with the Rice Creek Watershed District and her collaborator Westerlund is with the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District.
Global Spydrology by Sandra Rolph, Jenny Salita and Sean Jergens of Minneapolis. How much water do I use? How does that compare to others around the world? What does that volume of water look like? What effect do plants and agriculture have on water use? These are several of the issues that will confront visitors who enter Global Spydrology (spiral + hydrology), which dramatically depicts freshwater usage around the world. The daily, per capita volume of freshwater use is represented by groups of columns for 18 countries. It's a sobering lesson.
H20 Dance by Steve Sundahl of Bemidji. Visitors will encounter a grouping of human figures who appear to be dancing on water with reckless abandon. They will slowly turn in the wind providing different views from the same vantage point. The message is humans are composed mostly of water and we should always value this resource.
Aquatiscope by Chris Sutton and Sree Nair of Minneapolis. Microscopic plants and animals usually seen as flat one-dimensional images are transformed into human-scale 3-D sculptures, revealing their beauty, complexity and diversity.
These art installations will be placed in Arboretum gardens and water features and will be on display from June 6 through Oct. 4. If you just can't wait til summer, you can catch a "sneak preview" of the drawings and models of the winning Waterosity entries on display now in the Great Hall of the Oswald Visitor Center. The display continues through April 5.
Waterosity also will feature exhibits on Harvest Your Rain (displaying green roofs, rain barrels and rain gardens), The Cutting Edge (water-wise landscaping) and much more! Waterosity will be free with regular Arboretum gate admission ($7 for adults; free for 15 and under and free for members).
Catch the wave! Visit Waterosity this summer at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum!
Waterosity sponsors include Aveda, C.H. Robinson, Galleria, Irrigation Consultants & Control, Irrigation By Design, Minnehaha Watershed District, The Freshwater Society, Xcel Energy and Tennant, with additional support from Great River Energy and Allied Waste and Minnesota Electric Cooperative.
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Editors: Please contact Barb DeGroot at 952-443-1459 for any media needs.
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