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STATEMENT FROM THE ARTIST

    Traces of Wind and Water was my culminating Boston AIR (Artist in Residence) project and was based on researching the history of the location. Upham's corner has been a vibrant neighborhood for hundreds of years and The Strand Theatre is itself historic, built in 1918 as a "movie and vaudeville palace," so projecting moving-image content on to it ties directly with that history. Looking to the land - before Dorchester was annexed to Boston in 1870, it was a rural farming community for over two-hundred years. Prior to that, Native Americans from many tribes including the Wampanoag, Pequot, Nipmuck, and the Massachuset, had developed agriculture in the region, used the woods for hunting and were highly skilled in navigating the waters. And to look past the thousands of years native tribes were on the land, over 16,000 years ago, glaciers (that had covered the state with thousands of feet of ice during the last Ice Age) began to retreat. The glacier's deposits and the water from the ice melt, shaped many of the rock, land and water formations of the region. 

    I chose to highlight the site's connection to these many layers of complex history, wanting us to be aware of our present moment, our feet on the ground, our eyes to the sky, but to feel connected to the larger world, the larger history, remembering that through it all, there has been the wind, and the water. 

This project was supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts and was made possible through the Boston Artists in Residence Program of the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture in collaboration with the Department of Neighborhood Development and the Parks and Recreation Department. Additional support has been provided by luminArtz.

all images, video and other content © georgie friedman