The waters of Brooklyn are probably the most polluted waters in the United States. Two videos, two aquatic choreographies, two boats, a male-female duo, Adam and Eve, creation, purity rediscovered, and three sculptures, three pearl necklaces, three rosaries whose beads are messages denouncing this pollution.
Daniel Rothbart and Jessica Harris are the choreographers and actors of the videos. Both, each in a boat, the boat, go back and forth with the flow of the waters. Their sculptures, pearl necklaces accompanying their ballet on the Gowanus Canal.
Through this ballet, there is a tribute to Enrico Pedrini who passed away in 2012. Photos, views of this canal, are as many chapters of a book. The two boats left to the whims of the current unfold before us, the choreography performs its arabesques, and the two rowers become ethereal dancers, gods of an aquatic pantheon.
We will not forget the three sculptures: aluminum and glass spheres. The exhibition called: Waterlines or lines of water is a testimony for posterity of a performance realized on this canal from which the videos come.
This silent ballet is one of breathing, the air moves in and out quietly, and the boats, always airy and ethereal, move to the rhythm of the canal. The sculptures, glass buoys, pearl necklaces, or the trailing hair of a goddess, a water nymph, muse of the river, are like drawings the artist would have engraved on this Brooklyn canal.
The work and sculptures of Daniel Rothbart are presented at the Depardieu Gallery until October 31, 2014. This exhibition is also a show that should not be missed.
Thierry Jan
