Katherine Rae Diemert (k.d.rae) is a visual artist based out of Hamilton, Canada. She makes art that explores our relationship to the natural and digital worlds. You can reach her at kdiemert@gmail.com.
Water as a Gift
Fall 2022
Acrylic basin and lasercut mirror, water, motor mechanisms, video projection
5 x 5’ approximate, 10 min Looping Video
Exhibited at Cambridge Art Galleries Idea Exchange as part of group show Journey with our Kin.
Filed under PROJECTION, INSTALLATION, VIDEO
︎︎︎Documentation video
Water as a Gift is a multimedia ‘portrait’ of the Grand River watershed, the largest inland river system in Southern Ontario. A watershed is an area of land that catches all water from rainfall, ice melt and springs, and channels it into another body of water. The Grand River’s watershed is made up of 27 smaller sub-watersheds that combined have a total area of 6,800 square kilometers and supports a population of around one million people1.
In Water as a Gift, video filmed at various locations along the river is projected onto a basin holding water. Below the water basin are acrylic mirrors cut in the shape of the sub-watersheds and etched with the creeks, rivers, and other bodies of water within them. Assembled, the pieces form the shape of the Grand River watershed horizontally flipped, so that the reflected image is correctly oriented. Five motor mechanisms raise and lower pairs of cupped hands at the location of the five major metropolitan areas in the region, whose population roughly corresponds to the speed of movement from largest to smallest: Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Guelph, and Brantford.
Water as a Gift was made with the assistance of Rob Diemert, Evelyn Kelch, and Charlit Floriano.
In Water as a Gift, video filmed at various locations along the river is projected onto a basin holding water. Below the water basin are acrylic mirrors cut in the shape of the sub-watersheds and etched with the creeks, rivers, and other bodies of water within them. Assembled, the pieces form the shape of the Grand River watershed horizontally flipped, so that the reflected image is correctly oriented. Five motor mechanisms raise and lower pairs of cupped hands at the location of the five major metropolitan areas in the region, whose population roughly corresponds to the speed of movement from largest to smallest: Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Guelph, and Brantford.
Water as a Gift was made with the assistance of Rob Diemert, Evelyn Kelch, and Charlit Floriano.
︎︎︎In gallery view of installation, photography courtesy of Toni Hafkenscheid
1 Grand River Conservation Authority. (n.d.). Grand River Source Protection Area. Grand River - Drinking Water Source Protection.
1 Grand River Conservation Authority. (n.d.). Grand River Source Protection Area. Grand River - Drinking Water Source Protection.
