New Stories: New Futures
Curated by Dr. Lauren Cross
Water Has a Memory/Remembering, 2021, Video, Dimensions Vary.
The Arts Council of Fort Worth and AURORA partnered with Fort Worth-based curator Dr. Lauren Cross to create the theme ‘New Stories: New Features’ around Pioneer Tower at Will Rogers Memorial Center.
In Water Has a Memory/Remembering, the artist Angela Faz asks the viewer: “What might the West Fork and Clear Fork river bodies in Fort Worth remember when meeting the great Arkikosa River (Trinity River) in Dallas? Faz’s site-specific installation in New Stories, New Futures builds on her past work with the Future Monuments project called "Welcome to the Great Arkikosa" by reorienting how we view waterways.
Who is water? If water could talk, what would she say?
Toni Morison's quote inspired me, "All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was."
In Water Has a Memory/Remembering, the artist Angela Faz asks the viewer: “What might the West Fork and Clear Fork river bodies in Fort Worth remember when meeting the great Arkikosa River (Trinity River) in Dallas?
Faz’s site-specific installation in New Stories, New Futures builds on her past work with the Future Monuments project called"Welcome to the Great Arkikosa" by reorienting how we view waterways. The featured work by Angela Faz is rooted in observing how the Trinity River connects us to the past, present, and future as the spirit of the river becomes activated through imagery and sound.
After navigating Fort Worth waterways by kayak, the artist translated her river meditations to be experienced by the viewer in this interactive installation. In this work, the artist proposes that we view water as a living relation with the hope that it might change how we steward our most significant natural asset.
She calls for giving legal personhood to our cities’ waterways in the ways other cities, like Toledo, Ohio, have granted personhood to Lake Eerie. As a result, these living waters are protected from pollutants and allowed to exist.