JESSYE WDOWIN-MCGREGOR & REN GREGORČIČ

Where water falls

‘Where water falls’ is an exhibition featuring new research-led works by Jessye Wdowin-McGregor (Melbourne) and Ren Gregorčič (Canberra), interrogating the movement and circulation of water within hydraulic infrastructures in the urban environment. Using projected video, Jessye’s work ‘A Hydrous Place’ offers an exploration of human connection to a body of water marked by a history of marginalisation and ecological loss. The work responds to a section of the Moonee Ponds Creek, a waterway that traverses Melbourne’s northwestern suburbs and has undergone extensive modification across its lower floodplain. Altered and concrete-lined to accommodate freeway and drainage works, the creek is a hybrid space, a heightened composite of nature and artifice that reflects both historical attitudes toward the natural world and the effects of increased urbanisation.

Ren’s video installation ‘Motion in Division’ is informed by research into the nature of simulation methods used to model and manage urban water systems, and the relationship between the structure of these models and concrete hydrological infrastructure. The design and engineering of urban concrete hydrological systems are informed by computational models and simulations that describe how drains and water channels should function relative to the mechanics of water to achieve a desired result (i.e. management of water runoff). However, a misalignment can occur between modelling systems, which often assume that concrete objects are neutral and non-reactive conduits, and the way that concrete objects act and behave as a complex physical entity subject to multiple forces over long periods of time. Such is the case of the relationship between water and concrete urban infrastructure. ‘Motion in division’ explores this quality of alignment.

The artists would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians on whose land and waters their projects take place, including the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people of the Kulin Nation and the Ngunnawal, Ngambri and Ngarig people. The artists pay respects to their Elders, past and present, and to all First Nations people.