The Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries will showcase the photographs of Robin Dana in the exhibit “Watershed: How Industry Has Changed the Water of the World,” on view from March 9 through October 7 at the Beacon Institute Gallery at 199 Main Street in Beacon. An opening reception will be held for the artist on Saturday, March 9 from 5 to 7 p.m.
The exhibit is a vivid collection of images from the Hudson, Potomac and other watersheds around the world. Replete with fantastical colors in isolated landforms, Dana’s work reflects the scarification of our contemporary landscape with a resultant weird beauty, portrayed through large-format photography. Heavily influenced by her travels to Cuba, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Russia and Italy, the photographs reflect a unique serenity found in nature’s persistence in extreme conditions.
“Travel has confirmed my premise that water universally reflects nature’s ability to transform and beautify civilization’s misplaced stewardship,” says Dana. “My photographic efforts are a small part in the tradition of industrial landscape art, memorializing the moment man blends with his most essential element.”
Dana, a native of Georgia, began her photographic exploration of a “new nature” in 2004, when struck by the odd transformation of her hometown landscape by its resident mining industry. Since that time, Dana has focused on capturing the lush colors, abstract beauty and surreal forms that have emerged from her observations of the amplified and often destructive impact by man on nature. Through her photography, Dana explores the relationship between humans and their surroundings: a land that, strip-mined and strip-malled, still dictates our sense of national identity, where wild grandeur meets the reality of the ugly effects of our relentless pursuit of resources.
The Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries, a subsidiary of Clarkson University, is a not for-profit environmental research organization engaging scientists, engineers, educators and policy experts in collaborative work focusing on real-time monitoring of river ecosystems. Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Fridays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., second Saturdays of the month from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sundays from 12 noon to 5 p.m. For more information, call (845) 838-1600, extension 10, or visit www.bire.org. or visit www.rosendaletheatre.org or call (845) 658-8989.
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