By Philo Yunrui Wang
Lake Champlain in Plattsburgh holds the remnants of 300 shipwrecks beneath its waters. Above, the skies are traversed annually by 300 different species of birds. Beneath the surface, microbes are decomposing wastewater, their mysterious patterns curiously finding their way onto Christmas postcards. This intersection of natural history and human influence poses a captivating question: How do all these elements relate to us and our environment?
An exhibition featuring “Climate’s Shipwreck Ballad by Robin Lasser & Transmutation Traces by Marguerite Perret” is on display on the SUNY Plattsburgh campus. In this exhibition, Lasser’s and Perret’s works reveal the ecological and life clues around us while also subtly examining the poetic observation of human dichotomies. The exhibition is located on the second floor of the Myers Fine Arts Building, in both the Burke Gallery and the Slatkin Gallery, and is open throughout the entire fall semester until Dec. 9.
“From a birds-eye view, after the ice of the lake melts, faint outlines of some of these ships are visible on a clear day,” Lasser writes in the “Climate’s Shipwreck Ballad Series.”
For Lasser, the 300 shipwrecks and the 300 bird species that annually fly over Lake Champlain are the “poetic starting point” for this series.
“The first steamship to founder on Lake Champlain marks in time the early stages of the Industrial Revolution. It is almost like these floundered ships are a living buried archive of the time frame in which the climate change we’re experiencing now has been produced,” Lasser said in an interview.
In “Lost at Sea: Birds and Trees as Climate Refugees,” Lasser writes, “Heat, an ancient and primal force, whispering to the trees and birds, urges them to seek new realms.”
For trees, this means taking root deeper, spreading seeds farther and finding living space in new environments; for birds, it means adjusting migration routes, changing breeding times and seeking new food sources. Climate refugees impact countless other species in their joint adaptation and survival.
Following this heat pointer through the network of life, when facing human societal border issues, migration is deemed a biological instinct to seek better living conditions, which is another perspective that other life forms share with us.
“Contents at wastewater treatment plants are literally the substances we want to send away so that we never have to think about them again. These include the material of our own bodies and the waste it generates.” Perret writes in “Wastewater Is Us: A Complex System.” which, along with her work “Venus Cloacina in Triplicate,” metaphorically traverses the sparkling waves in the kitchens, bathrooms and laundry rooms of the goddess Venus the Purifier, symbolizing the alienation and beautification extremes people imagine about wastewater treatment.
“The wastewater treatment plant offers no social hierarchies. It is ultimately purely egalitarian,” Perret writes. Indeed, the unknown system akin to “alchemy” that purifies wastewater is composed of flora and fauna that arrive in the treatment tanks through the air or are brought there by various species. These organisms grow and are able to metabolize the toxins in wastewater and decompose waste.
In the experimental short film Rotifer Sanctuary, co-produced by Lasser and Perret, the wastewater treatment plant in Plattsburgh provides a sanctuary for rotifers. As microbes responsible for decomposing human waste, their numbers have greatly diminished due to the warming waters of Lake Champlain and the invasion of zebra mussels.
“The music in the ‘Rotifer Sanctuary’ was composed in collaboration with a tree growing next to the wastewater treatment plant on the shore of Lake Champlain,” Lasser said in an interview. The tree’s electrical signals were assigned instruments, tones and pitches. The tree’s song reflects its thirst, hunger and breathing patterns. Transmutation is an ancient word that means changing one substance into another.
“In a very real way, we are living in an era of transmutation because the world around us is changing so fast, giving rise to pandemics and other challenges associated with habitat disruption, loss of biodiversity and climate change.” Perret writes in “Transmutation Still Life Nature Study Tables.”
The work is filled with rotting, broken organic bodies that are riddled with the colonial traces of modern trade and mass consumption. Water’s transmutation has always been a climate transformation, and thus, a human transformation.
During this reflective, poetic and caring exhibition, a play without words “The Water Station” directed by Julia Devine will be performed from Oct. 3 to Oct. 6 each evening at 7 p.m. in the same gallery space. “The Water Station,” a story about migrants seeking food, love and meaning on their journey, was created by one of Japan’s leading contemporary playwrights and directors, Ōta Shōgo.
“The encounter between ‘The Water Station’ and the exhibitions by Lasser and Perret happened naturally,” Devine said at the first gathering with performers.
The resonating elements are being shared this fall semester — the performance, the exhibitions, as well as the audience, will all engage in dialogue here.
For more information about “Climate’s Shipwreck Ballad by Robin Lasser & Transmutation Traces by Marguerite Perret,” please visit https://www.plattsburgh.edu/plattslife/arts/art-museum/museum-exhibitions.html
For more information about “The Water Station,” please refer to https://www.plattsburgh.edu/plattslife/arts/theatre-calendar.html.
View the artists websites
Robin Lasser https://www.robinlasser.com
Marguerite Perret https://www.margueriteperret.com
