Margaret Cogswell

Moving the Waters: Croton Fugues includes a series of multi-layered panels (96"H x 64" w) of prints installed in the street level windows along Fifth Avenue and East 40th Street of the Mid-Manhattan Library. It is the third in a series of projects that focus on New York City’s water supply system and pays homage to the Centennial Anniversary of NYC’s aqueduct system that was completed in 1917. In the opening ceremonies, it's chief engineer, J. Waldo Smith, was hailed as a magician for this major accomplishment. This project is also inspired by the location of the Mid-Manhattan library which is located on Fifth Avenue across the street from New York City’s main public library, the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, which was built in 1911 on the site of the former Croton Distribution Reservoir.

What Else Is There? is a 5-minute visual poem/video directly inspired by William Butler Yeats’ play "At the Hawk’s Well" which is one of his Four Plays for Dancers inspired by Noh drama of Japan. This video overlays water-related rituals in the tea ceremony of Japan with the ritualistic art of dowsing for water and an intimate exchange of stories about water between two elderly women. Yeats’ fascination with Noh drama was not only with its structure, but also with the parallels he saw between the traditional Irish myths/legends and those of Japan. My discovery of "At the Hawk’s Well" led to research on the holy wells in Ireland and the parallels with sacred wells/springs and water related rituals in Japan. This video was exhibited in an installation created for the video at Time Space Limited in Hudson, New York in fall 2005. It was also exhibited in 2011 at the Cheltenham Poetry Festival, an international festival at the Meantime Gallery, Cheltenham, UK.

ZHUJIAJIAO RIVER POEMS – 2014 (6 min. video trailer from 12 min. video) Video Installation in Zhujiajiao Water Soundings Solo Exhibition: Curated by Wang Nanming Zendai Zhujiajiao Art Museum Zhujiajiao, China In 2014, I was invited to create new work for a solo exhibition while being in residence at the Zendai Zhujiajiao Art Museum in Zhujiajiao, a 1,700 year old water town. Living and working in a Ming Dynasty building on the Cao Gong River with all the overlays of both ancient history and contemporary life offered a unique experience for a newcomer to China and rare opportunity to observe its relationship to its water and its rivers. In Zhujiajiao, the rivers and canals are public waterways. Not only beautiful to look at, they also serve as arteries in the life of the surrounding communities and towns. These rivers are used for everything including fishing, boating, hauling construction materials, washing clothes, mops, food, and more. Teahouses, restaurants, parks, as well as private homes, line these waterways, and are always filled with people whose lives are dependent on different uses of the water, for survival as well as the pleasure that it gives them. Every morning I woke up early and began to video life on the river as it was waking up outside my studio windows. I observed the care that went into trying to keep the river clear of plants and trash for navigation. I began to notice the reoccurring movements in different activities – like the rowing of the boats, the movement of a Taiji master’s hands, the motions of harvesting snails with long bamboo poles, the movement of the water after a passing boat. I would catch fragments of traditional songs, whiffs of smoke from the cooking of food, and smells of fish frying on open flames. That my view of the world should be defined by Ming Dynasty windows reminded me also that I was an outsider, and that my point of view was personal and different from anyone else Chinese. Given this, my videos are in turn framed so that the images are constrained within oval or rectangular forms.