River Runes

Detail view of River Runes

"Time is a river without banks." -anonymous

Viewer

“It was all very well to say ‘Drink me’ but the wise little Alice was not going to do that in a hurry” -Lewis Carrol, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Viewer

“First I take an axe and pail and go in search of water if that be not a dream” - Thoreau

“Water draws to itself all images of purity”- Gaston Bahchelard

“A man may fish with a worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that fed of that worm” - Hamlet, Shakespeare

  • Location: Temporary Installation at Art Park Niagara River, Lewiston, NY (1990)
  • Materials: Nine underground sculptures, ten viewing stands: monoculars, steel, domestic objects, brass, light and literary quotations
  • Budget: $12,000
  • Artist: Mags Harries

Art Park and the nearby Love Canal are sited on a former chemical dump. The Runes is a public art sculpture & theatrical perspective of the Niagara River dealing with filtration and purity of water. The ten sculptures are first experienced at a distance through the standard viewing stands. At each stand there is a literary quotation that expands the sculpture. This sculpture draws attention to the fishermen on the Niagara River who cannot eat the fish of the river, as the mercury levels are too high. The quote on the viewer is “Don’t blame the fish,” -anonymous.

The viewing stations are positioned within site of each other so that the Art Park visitors can discover the Runes as they meander through the park. This viewer focuses attention directly onto the Niagara River and the importance of the Great Lakes in the local and global ecology with the quote: “One fifth of the world’s fresh water comes through the Great Lakes”- Ashworth.