The Watermill Center will present its 2021 Winter Viewpoints series, hosted online via Zoom each Wednesday in January. The series of conversations will feature The Daxophone Consort, composer Adam Lenz and musician Zach Rowden, artist Erica-Lynn Huberty, and multidisciplinary duo Ximena Garnica and Shige Moriya.
The series is a digital continuation of The Center’s annual Viewpoints: Nights @ The Roundtable, which began in 2018 and featured intimate conversations with local artists and community organizers, as well as Watermill staff, alumni and Community Fellows.
The Daxophone Consort — composed of Watermill Alum Daniel Fishkin, Cleek Schrey and Ron Shalom — will take the audience on a tour of the daxophone on January 6. In this workshop, the audience will learn about the material properties of the instrument.
Artist Erica-Lynn Huberty will present the talk “Running from Houses/Retreating to Houses” on January 13, which explores women’s positions in communities: from homemaker and damsel, to scientist and pioneer. Through her writing and visual art, Huberty explores what the marginalization of women — particularly women of color — says about the devolution of the health of our planet and bodies.
“Though we can’t gather onsite for obvious reasons, we still wanted to continue the series to engage with our local community,” said Public Programming & Residency Coordinator, Kelly Dennis. “The joy of doing this series online is that now we can expand our community beyond our local East End friends and family, continue to support artists in this way, and welcome in a global community to share in what started as an intimate event.”
On January 20, Watermill alum Adam Lenz and musician Zach Rowden will discuss their recent collaborative work “A Way Of Providing Ventilation (WAC),” developed and exhibited during an artist residency at Windsor Art Center in Windsor, Connecticut. The work examines the history and architecture of the iconic tobacco sheds in the Connecticut River Valley through charcoal drawings and a collaborative, site-specific sound installation.
To conclude the series on January 27, multidisciplinary artist duo Ximena Garnica and Shige Moriya, also Watermill alumni, share their reflections on “the power of raising” as approached in their collaborative artistic practice and through the lenses of their ongoing project “Correspondences.” Through their projects and works, they offer the spectator multiple entry points to engage with questions of being, interdependence, and coexistence.
The series unofficially kicked off December 16 with a conversation between Dennis and fellow attorney and activist, Tela Troge. The two discussed the history of the Shinnecock Nation, and their involvement in legal battles for land restoration, protection, and preservation throughout the years, including recent activity around the Shinnecock Monument Project and Sovereignty Camp 2020 on Sunrise Highway during Native American Heritage Month.
“The special thing about this program is that it really showcases a wide range of topics,” said Center Director Elka Rifkin. “From important and thought provoking conversations, to highlighting the work of local and international artists, Viewpoints allows us to look into the contemporary moment and share it with each other.”
The series is free and open to the public. Each talk starts at 5:30 PM and will also be live streamed to The Center’s Facebook page. Register here.