Extraction: Art on the Edge of the Abyss

Exhibit A: Walking the Watershed by Ronnie Farley

EXTRACTION: Art on the Edge of the Abyss is a multimedia, multi-venue, cross-border art intervention which seeks to provoke societal change by exposing and interrogating the negative social and environmental consequences of industrialized natural resource extraction. A global coalition of artists and creators committed to shining a light on all forms of extractive industry—from mining and drilling to the reckless plundering and exploitation of fresh water, fertile soil, timber, marine life, and innumerable other resources across the globe—the Extraction Project will culminate in a constellation of nearly fifty overlapping exhibitions, performances, installations, site-specific work, land art, street art, publications, poetry readings, and cross-media events throughout 2021 and beyond.

No.3 Reading Room & Photo Book Works is participating as a venue in this “ruckus” by presenting projects by several artists working to shine this light through photography, printmaking, publications, installation, video and painting. The first in this series of exhibits will be Walking the Watershed, a photo installation and book by the photographer and writer Ronnie Farley, who was featured here in November. Ronnie’s devotion to the issues of sustainability of life in a time of hyper-capitalism, colonialism and global climate chaos caused her to ponder the system that provides and delivers water to the millions of people living in NYC. Beginning in April, 2019, Ronnie collected water in a covered bucket with friends at the Schoharie reservoir in upstate New York and began a series of walks down to Manhattan, following the Catskill aqueduct route. The 150 mile trek took months. During this journey, Ronnie documented the route of the water and the people along the way in still and video formats, to be produced as a book and short film. Through the act of walking with the water, it is Ronnie’s hope to raise awareness of the distance New York’s water supply has to travel, and create a dialog about the rural/urban relationship regarding resources and economic stability.

Photographs from Walking the Watershed will be on display beginning in April on the second anniversary of the start of her walk, since which time, we entered the long period of the Covid-19 pandemic. This installation will take place in the windows once again when the weather has eased, for viewing from the sidewalk. There are limited copies of the Extraction: Art on the Edge of the Abyss Megazine catalog and exhibition guide, that can be acquired by request for pick-up during the exhibition period at no cost beginning in April. The book version of Walking the Watershed is slated for publication in Spring, 2021. Please follow this blog for updates.

Meanwhile, more about the Extraction: Art on the Edge of the Abyss project can be viewed here: https://www.extractionart.org/home

You can view Ronnie Farley’s Walking the Watershed project here: https://www.ronniefarley.com/portfolio/G0000a0FeEesJHY0