In Deep Water: Turning the Tide
Artists Statement
“In Deep Water – Turning the Tide” at Tides Converge Gallery, the Presidio, San Francisco, November 16, 2022 – March 15, 2023
Jane Ingram Allen and Jami Taback
This exhibition is the result of a collaboration that began in August 2021 between two Northern California artists, Jami Taback, a printmaking artist ad Jane Ingram Allen, a papermaking artist. Both artists are concerned about our climate change crisis and environmental problems related to water, including rising seas, warming oceans, droughts and flooding, wildfires, more severe storms and increasing shortages of clean fresh water for humans and all life.
This site-specific installation at the Tides Converge Gallery in San Francisco takes a positive attitude that tides do turn, and expresses the hope that this can be the time when we are able to halt the continuing climate change crisis and indeed turn things around. By bringing more public attention to water (the essential element for life) maybe people can realize that our planet is in crisis and make changes that can positively affect global warming, pollution and other problems caused by climate change.
The two artists have worked together in a collaborative process to create this multi-part sculptural art installation. The project has already resulted in three public exhibitions, one in Sonoma, CA (Sonoma Community Center Gallery), and one in Glassboro, NJ (Rowan University, Discovery Hall Lobby) and one at Gallery Route One’s Project Space in Point Reyes Station, California. With this 4th exhibition in San Francisco we want to focus on the hope that we are turning the tide and that we can solve our climate crisis before it’s too late.
Both artists are committed to making art using sustainable methods and materials and using their art to bring more immediate public attention to climate change and water issues. The artwork shows the terrible beauty and dichotomy of water as it can become out of control and raging, while at other times it is calm and refreshing. Our current environmental crisis continues, and we are “in deep water”, but still there is hope for making changes and turning the tide.
The artwork produced for this project makes use of printmaking and hand papermaking to create an immersive multi-part modular large-scale art installation. The artwork is primarily in a color scheme referencing water with out of control seas and swirling flood waters using many shades of blue, gray and white with accents of orange and black referencing wildfires. There are torn and burned holes in the artwork and swirling strings uniting the elements. This artwork makes use of each artists’ area of expertise and takes advantage of unexpected happenings in an artistic dialogue. It can be installed in a variety of ways to create site-specific installations in different exhibition spaces and generate dialogue about climate change and ways to meet the crisis.