OF WATER

at the confluence of art, science, and service

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Each year, millions of salmon migrate from the ocean, swimming hundreds of miles upstream in the waters that feed the North Pacific. As a keystone species, they drive ecosystems across the North Pacific rim, playing an important role in nutrient cycling by transferring marine-derived nutrients to freshwater and terrestrial environments. Salmon are a significant food source for a wide range of terrestrial animals, directly influencing the populations and health of these species.

 

As an indicator species, declining salmon populations signal broader environmental concerns of habitat degradation, pollution, and climate change. The annual salmon run, in which many salmon species travel upstream to the headwaters of rivers to spawn, has been increasingly affected by man-made obstacles, physical alterations of natural river channels, run-off of agricultural pesticides, and the acidification of our oceans.

Once abundant, Idaho’s salmon and steelhead populations have declined significantly, with some populations down as much at 80% since the 1950s. This is not an isolated incident, with a decrease in wild salmon populations happening in the Atlantic and both sides of the Pacific Rim. As time goes on, declines of salmon are expanding further northward and inland, pervading and disrupting more Artic, European, Asian, and Pacific Northwest ecosystems.

Of Water explores the importance of Salmon as a keystone species and the effects of environmental degradation on salmon runs. Occupying a central role in the exhibition both physically and figuratively, an installation of over 200 hand-blown glass salmon hangs suspended from the ceiling. Their shimmering mirrored surfaces echo a ghost-like migration, capturing both the fragility and resilience of wild salmon. Surrounding this dynamic school of silver are drawings on repurposed birch panels of the many riparian wildlife which depend on salmon, both as a foundational fertilizer, food source, and cyclical transporter of nutrients between land and sea.

Much like the channels and streams which merge to create new rivers, Of Water creates a space for important ecological discourse through the seamless merging of art and science. Perambulating around the room, in and through the school of fish, one becomes both witness and participant. The exhibition invites us to meditate on the fragility of our planet, ecosystem, and our role within it. It asks us not only what we have done but what we can do to affect positive change through the protection and restoration of our rivers.

Of Water at Gail Severn Gallery is a smaller replica of The Salmon School a traveling large-scale installation. Working with the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA, the initial forms of The Salmon School were created, and a method was developed to easily replicate versions of a salmon-like shape using glass. These forms were hand-blown by artists and makers from around the world, all of whom are concerned by the plight of wild salmon. Using recycled and batch glass, the blown glass salmon were made over four and a half years, echoing the lifecycle of salmon.

The Salmon School inaugural exhibition opened at Bellevue Arts Museum in Washington state. Displayed at eye level, it reflected the population of native wild salmon in the Skagit River, flowing into Puget Sound, North of Seattle. The exhibition then travelled to the United Nations Climate Change Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, 2021; Balmoral Castle (as part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee) in 2022 and was part of the 2022 United National International Year of Glass at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA.

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— Meredith Skillman, Gail Severn Gallery