Like Water from a Rock
Donna Zarbin-Byrne uses an extraordinary mixture of art materials to create material equivalents--what poets call "objective correlatives"--of her experiences in the natural world. Her recent artwork focuses on two distinct geological zones: the lush landscapes of the West Maui Mountains (site of the devastating Lahaina fire in 2023) and the scorched austerity of the Chihuahuan Desert in West Texas (a large, ecologically diverse zone that extends into Mexico).
The artist records her hiking expeditions through these areas with sketches and photographs, then translates her memories into magical arrangements of actual rocks and plants collected on site, wire drawings, rubber molds from boulders, handmade paper, cast bronze, and augmented reality (i.e., artworks visible through the camera apps of smart phones). In addition, she has invited three poets--Brandy Nalani McDougal, Sasha Pimentel and Emily Thiroux Threatt--to collaborate with her by contributing texts related to the designated eco-zones. (Some of their poems appear in the augmented reality components of the installations.)
Walking through Zarbin-Byrne's installation is like entering a surreal dreamscape. Pale silk drapes the ceiling, like golden clouds. Watery blue on one side and layers of brown hills on the other, point to the juxtaposition of aqueous and arid environments. A topographical "rug" echoing mountain shapes glides across the floor. Dark casts of boulders hover above it. A century plant (a Mexican cactus that only blooms once in its 10-30 year life) angles into the next room, looming over other plants encased in bronze, with rusty puddles anchoring them. Across the space, a dried ocotillo lifts skeletal arms full of red blossoms.
French actress Stacy Martin has asserted that "Photography can be a way into worlds and memories that words sometimes fail to convey." Looking at Donna Zarbin-Byrne's oeuvre, it becomes clear that all kinds of visual art can take us into memories that resist linguistic equivalents. Further, neuroscientists tell us that images such as artworks can serve as mnemonic devices (i.e., constructed forms that promote information recall). The word "mnemonic" comes from Mnemosyne, the name of the Greek Goddess of Memory and Mother of the Muses, the water nymphs symbolized by mountains, springs, and rivers. Memory and water are linked in Zarbin-Byrne's 2023 installation Like Water from a Rock. The title refers to the biblical story about Israelites miraculously receiving water from a rock in the wilderness.
Memories form connections to certain terrains; we tend to value areas we have spent time in more than those which remain unknown. As it happens, Zarbin-Byrne has studios in both Hawaii and Texas, so her work is based on memories generated in her homelands. In presenting the breathtaking beauty of desert, mountains and sea, Zarbin-Byrne encourages us to recognize and value such lands.
—Betty Ann Brown
Augmented Reality videos from exhibition
Press From the exhibition Like Water from a Rock include:
Southwest Contemporary - Reimagines Landscapes Against Grief by Emma Snow Ahmed. — Donna Zarbin-Byrne considers herself a plein air artist, though her methods go beyond that of Monet or Renoir. Instead, she can be seen drawing with wire, sculpting contour forms of the mountains that surround her, making molds of the rocky terrain to haul back to her studio. For her solo exhibition Like Water from a Rock, Zarbin-Byrne chose two distinct landscapes to emulate: the West Texas desert and the West Maui Mountains… Continue reading!
Art Spiel - Like Water from a Rock at Arts Fort Worth. — In her installation-based exhibition, Like Water from a Rock, at Arts Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX, Donna Zarbin-Byrne responds to the landscapes of the Chihuahuan desert of West Texas and the West Maui mountains, connecting material sites with an internal process… Continue reading!
*Special thanks to:
Sasha Pimentel, author of For Want of Water and Other Poems, NEA fellow in poetry
Brandy Nālani McDougal, state poet laureate, Hawai’i for the use of the poem Pō.
Emily Thiroux Threatt for contributions of Haiku poetry.
David Stanford for collaboration on the augmented reality experiences
Carl Yoshihara for aerial photographs