{"id":7838,"date":"2018-06-27T00:09:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-27T04:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=7838"},"modified":"2018-06-27T06:22:56","modified_gmt":"2018-06-27T10:22:56","slug":"ica-watershed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2018\/06\/27\/ica-watershed\/","title":{"rendered":"Photos: Look Inside The Watershed, The ICA\u2019s New East Boston Outpost"},"content":{"rendered":"

On July 4, Boston\u2019s Institute of Contemporary Art will debut a satellite outpost on the East Boston waterfront, across the harbor from the museum\u2019s Seaport\/Innovation District home. Called the ICA Watershed<\/a>, the building recycles a derelict former copper pipe facility in the Boston Harbor Shipyard and Marina into a handsome, 15,000-square-foot exhibition hall.<\/p>\n

Anmahian Winton Architects of Cambridge designed the renovation. For flavor, they\u2019ve kept the raw concrete floor and cinderblock walls, some graffiti and winches and cranes. Original support columns have been removed and replaced with a truss structure. There\u2019s also a new corrugated metal roof, hanger doors that open at both ends, and a skylight running 250-feet along the right side of the building (for the first exhibition, the artist has covered it with gels in rainbow hues).<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The ICA’s Watershed building, June 26, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Help Wonderland keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activisms (and our great festivals) by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

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The exterior\u2019s new translucent cladding rhymes with the ICA\u2019s 2006 Diller Scofidio + Renfro-designed building across the harbor in Boston\u2019s Seaport\/Innovation District. Out the backdoor is a parking lot, boat crane, and dock. A ferry will shuttle visitors from the ICA\u2019s main building to the Watershed, docking at the sailing center at Piers Park.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The ICA’s Watershed. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Watershed offers 9,400 square feet of gallery space (compared to 65,000-square-feet of space total in the mothership across the harbor). Basically, the Watershed is a monumental hollow shoebox, designed to be open to artistic possibilities.<\/p>\n

The ICA says it is leasing the building from Massport for 10 years, with options to renew it twice. It\u2019s a seasonal facility, debuting to the public on July 4. Then will operate until Oct. 8. Next year the ICA expects it will be open from late May to early October.<\/p>\n

\"In<\/a>
Photos by local teens of East Boston in the \u201cHarbor View Room\u201d at the ICA’s Watershed. June 26, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A visit to the Watershed opens with a brief video history of the area\u2014from ships to immigrants\u2014screening in the \u201cShipyard Gallery\u201d along the front wall, to the left of the ticket desk. At the very back of the building, nearest the water, the \u201cHarbor View Room\u201d offers handsome photos by local teens of East Boston\u2014the neighborhood curiously almost completely empty of people.<\/p>\n

\"Diana<\/a>
Diana Thater\u2019s 2008 \u201cUntitled Videowall (Butterflies)” (foreground) and her 1999 installation \u201cDelphine.” June 26, 2018 (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In between, for the building’s first temporary exhibit, are seven artworks by Diana Thater of Los Angeles. They\u2019re mainly silent video installations that seem to be part extinction tourism, part meditative bliss-out.<\/p>\n

Up first is Thater\u2019s 2008 \u201cUntitled Videowall (Butterflies),\u201d a set of five flat-screen televisions on the floor plus two orange fluorescent lights. The screens show swaying, up-close footage of one monarch butterfly lazily flapping its wings. A pamphlet notes: \u201cThe year that Thater filmed \u2026. a winter frost killed millions of butterflies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Diana<\/a>
Diana Thater\u2019s 2008 \u201cUntitled Videowall (Butterflies)” at ICA Watershed, June 26, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Her 1999 installation \u201cDelphine\u201d features four videos of freckled dolphins and bubbling human divers projected on two walls and the floor. To the side is a stack of nine televisions screening footage of a blue and violet sun swirling with incredible heat.<\/p>\n

Beyond are three screens showing images from her 2013 works \u201cDay for Night.\u201d One screen shows white scratches raining down. The other two feature blurry images that I first took to maybe be beehives, but are apparently flowers.<\/p>\n

\"Theater's<\/a>
Theater’s video installations about rare elephants (left) and rhinos at the ICA Watershed, June 26, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To the left, a gallery offers two video installations projected onto two freestanding screens intersecting in an X formation. Thater\u2019s 2017 \u201cA Runaway World\u201d shows clouds and a tree and a herd of endangered elephants drinking from a concrete water trough in Kenya. It\u2019s joined by Thater\u2019s 2017 installation \u201cAs Radical as Reality.\u201d In the videos, men in fatigues carrying automatic rifles stand guard over the last male northern white rhinoceros (which later died in March 2018) and occasionally reaching out to tenderly pat its flank. Thater occasionally wanders into the scene, carrying a camera with a long lens. A pamphlet says: \u201cBy shooting at dusk, Thater reminds us that the sun is literally setting on the white rhino.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Help Wonderland keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activisms (and our great festivals) by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Thater\u2019s 2017 installation \u201cAs Radical as Reality.\u201d In the videos, men in fatigues and carrying automatic rifles stand guard over the last male northern white rhinoceros (which later died in March 2018) and occasionally reaching to tenderly pat its flank. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Looking<\/a>
Looking out the backdoor of the ICA Watershed, June 26, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Hanger<\/a>
Hanger doors open at both ends of the ICA Watershed hall, June 24,2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Lockers<\/a>
Lockers for visitors near the front of the ICA’s Watershed, June 26, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A<\/a>
A brief video history of East Boston screens \u201cShipyard Gallery” at the ICA Watershed, June 26, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The \u201cHarbor View Room\u201d at the ICA’s Watershed. June 26, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Diana<\/a>
Diana Thater’s \u201cDay for Night.\u201d at the ICA Watershed, June 26, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Diana<\/a>
Diana Thater’s 1999 installation \u201cDelphine.” June 26, 2018 (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Diana<\/a>
Diana Thater\u2019s 2008 \u201cUntitled Videowall (Butterflies)” at ICA Watershed, June 26, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Billboard<\/a>
Billboard on Route 1A advertising the ICA’s Watershed building, June 26, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Note<\/a>
Note on the door of the ICA’s Watershed, June 26, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On July 4, Boston\u2019s Institute of Contemporary Art will debut a satellite outpost on the East Boston waterfront, across the harbor from the museum\u2019s Seaport\/Innovation District home. Called the ICA Watershed, the building recycles a derelict former copper pipe facility in the Boston Harbor Shipyard and Marina into a handsome, 15,000-square-foot exhibition hall. Anmahian Winton […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7830,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,108],"tags":[37,401,96,402],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7838"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7838"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7841,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7838\/revisions\/7841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}