Water is Life exhibit visits Kean
By Estefani Hernandez | Published by Oct. 5, 2018
The Human Rights Institute invites the Water is Life Exhibit to shed light on water issues and how they affect women around the world.
The Water is Life exhibition started out in the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland and has traveled to different venues, Kean University being the last stop. The exhibit will be on display in the Human Rights Institute Gallery till December 12, 2018.
Source of Life. Photo Courtesy of Estefani Hernandez.
“The exhibit first debuted in Geneva back in 2016, for world water day,” said Allison Wilbur the curator for this event.
This exhibit shows a diversity in the different artists that are involved and how their quilt gets the message across to the audience. With a total of 39 artists from the US, Canada, and Europe. Many of these artists belong to a large art quilt organization called (SAQA) Studio Art Quilt Association.
Finding Strength in her Net done by Susan Florentino from Rome, Italy. Photo Courtesy of Estefani Hernandez.
“How this piece came to me is I know how important rice is to a huge portion of the world. This quilt is about my great-grandmother planting rice in the Philippines,” said Cathey LaBonte an artist featured at the event.
Cathey wanted to do a piece to celebrate her Philippine heritage and hopes to visually communicate the necessity of clean fresh water for growing rice, her quilt is called Ancestral Rice Growing.
“The rocky mountain poison talks about how the mining industry has poisoned the water sources,” Wilbur said. “There are some pieces that talk about water being a source of food and the governance of water in other countries.”
Discussion on art quilts and water issues. Photo Courtesy of Estefani Hernandez.
All of the quilts have their own background of how it came to be, but ultimately all share the same goal. These quilts shed light on the water issues that we deal with today.
Make sure to stop by the Human Rights Institute Gallery, access is free and open to the public. If you have a group to schedule a tour, email humanrights@kean.edu or call (908) 737-4672.
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