Nadine Bariteau, Raymond Boisjoly, Elizabeth Chitty, Soheila Esfahani, Gautam Garoo, Patrick Mahon, Colin Miner, Lucy + Jorge Orta, Gu Xiong

Curated by Stuart Reid

A central goal of this group exhibition was to bring together works by Canadian and international artists/researchers from multiple backgrounds, each focusing on water, to highlight the varying attitudes and ideas of diverse producers. Considering water from multiple vantage points, an initial research project established by Patrick Mahon and entitled Immersion Emergencies, challenged the idea that there could possibly be a monolithic attitude towards such a 'universal' substance. With an emphasis on differing and possibly competing perspectives, the project was a context where information, attitudes and values – even spiritual or religious ones – found a home, and also a springboard for display and discourse.

The exhibition, The Source: Rethinking Water through Contemporary Art, united artists involved in theImmersion Emergencies project with other invited artists to establish a rich and variable context of engagement throughout Rodman Hall Art Centre at Brock University in St. Catharine's, ON, Canada, in Summer 2014, both inside and outside the gallery. The ten artists whose works were presented mobilized contemporary art to ruminate, educate, and also to mourn about water, inviting viewers to pay attention to a substance that is, in the truest sense, us.

The accompanying images focus mainly on Patrick Mahon's work. For further information on the project, see:
http://www.brocku.ca/rodman-hall