Video works by Henry Sanchez
Artist in person!
Microscope is happy to welcome back to the gallery Houston-based artist and former Bushwick resident Henry G. Sanchez for a screening of works on video.
The selection of 10 works made between 2013 and 2018 arise from Sanchez’s interest in observing and documenting the human impact on the eco-system, especially on the bodies of water near his home. His attention in these works is concentrated on Bushwick’s English Kills, a tributary of the Newtown Creek Superfund site and on the 31-mile long river Brays Bayou in Harris County, a tributary of the Buffalo Bayou, which flows through Houston.
Mixing creative and scientific approach, serious and amusing tones, and performances for the camera, Sanchez takes us beneath the water’s surface and as close as possible to the forms of life populating the rivers and shorelines, usually unnoticed. Among others, the works in the roughly 60-minute program show the artist catching fish with a landing net, conducting an experiment to determine whether ribbed mussels are able to filter and clean polluted water, making animations of puppets assembled from sediments of English Kills, and placing his videos of contaminated streams in washing machines. You will also find “Edward the Egret” instructing the viewer not to flush the toilet during rainstorm events.
"A motivating force for the ENGLISH KILLS PROJECT was the goal of informing the residents of Bushwick and East Williamsburg about the problems of Newtown Creek… I felt that if people can see the problems of the creek, it can lead to action. For too long this neighborhood of underserved residents of color have been subjected to the health effects of a polluted creek in their environment and to living next door to 40% of New York City’s waste transfer sites. It would be difficult to deny these as clear signals of environmental discrimination.” - HGS
Henry G. Sanchez in attendance and available for a Q&A following the screening.
General admission $8
Members & Students $6
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Henry G. Sanchez is an interdisciplinary, social practice artist and curator whose subject matter concentrates on history, the environment and social justice. He has exhibited his work at various venues in New York City, Turkey, Spain and throughout the U.S. In 2012 Mr. Sanchez founded the ENGLISH KILLS PROJECT, a bio-art and social practice project seeking a transformation of a polluted creek in Brooklyn. It proposes community-based initiatives to introduce bio-remediation in Newtown Creek, a Superfund site. In 2015 he established the Law Office Center for Citizenship and Art (L.O.C.C.A.) (www.loccart.org) in Houston, Texas. Sanchez’s work has been exhibited and screened at Electronic Arts Intermix, NYC; Momenta Art, Brooklyn, NY; Greenpoint Film Festival, Brooklyn; Guggenheim Museum, Soho; McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas, TX; Rooster Gallery, NY; Jersey City Museum, NJ; Here Art Center, NYC; Pera Museum, Istanbul, Turkey; City University of New York; Taller Boriqua Gallery, NYC; Schmidt Center Gallery, Florida Atlantic University; Ben Shahn Center, William Patterson University; and Centro de Arte de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain, among others. Sanchez lives and works in Houston, Texas. He graduated with a MA in International Relations/Political Science from Rutgers University (2000) and with a MFA Art Practice in Interdisciplinary Arts, SVA (2014).
More info and full program at www.microscopegallery.com