This is Water

Gladys Valley Marine Studies Building, Hatfield Marine Science Center, Oregon State University, Newport, Oregon
2020
Stainless steel, etched mirror, two-way mirror, LED lattices, sound elements
266' x 44' x 14"
Commissioned by the Oregon Arts Commission and Oregon State University

This Is Water sets nineteen internally lit, etched infinity mirror vitrines into the lobby, atrium, and mezzanine of the Gladys Valley Marine Studies Building on the Oregon coast. Round, porthole-like forms in the stair and atrium walls turn an often gray interior into a space that changes as people move through it. We developed a technique for this project that lets light pass through images etched on mirrored glass, so each picture repeats into apparent depth and seems to drift as viewers cross the lobby or climb the stairs. The vitrines were built into the walls in collaboration with the building's architects, Yost Grube Hall.

The imagery came from the people who work there. Over months of in-person sessions, faculty, researchers, and students showed us what they do on campus and at sea, and they supplied the pictures: a starfish one researcher was studying among the rocks at the mouth of the bay, the research vessel the center takes out on the water.

The commission also asked us to connect the campus with the city of Newport across the bay. We gave members of both communities recording devices and simple instructions for capturing the ordinary sounds of their days. The response was wildly enthusiastic. Hundreds of those recordings now loop quietly from speakers set into the larger vitrines: whale song, children at play, a basketball game, a distant foghorn, fishing boat bells, a runner's footfalls on the beach.

The title comes from David Foster Wallace's 2005 commencement speech at Kenyon College, which opens with a parable about two young fish who don't know what water is. The installation is about the medium we all move through without noticing, and about the effort to understand the larger experience that shapes a life and its values.