Michelle Schwengel-Regala
Water Column: Wailele
Aluminum
Private Garden

Artist Statement

Growing up in Wisconsin’s Driftless Zone, an area shaped during the last Ice Age, taught me to “see” how water flows through and shapes landscapes—be it in solid form as glaciers, as meltwaters overflowing riverbanks, or filtering into underground aquifers. The global water cycle has always intrigued me; water forms and aquatic creatures have been the focus of much of my work. In 2016, I was an Artist-at-Sea embedded within a research crew during a voyage from Hawaiʻi to Tahiti. This high-tech journey tracing a historic route afforded valuable perspectives about time, space and scale. The scientists’ ocean-sampling sessions brought important data sets from the deep and sparked new ideas and approaches for my practice.

One outcome is my “Water Column” series of textile sculptures created with waves of knitted wire—the technique I’ve chosen for 8x8. These pieces show an evolution ranging from representations of numbers and volumes of salt water to this free-flowing composition depicting fresh water with jali-like stitches and overlapping rivulets. Focusing my attention on this space with a waterfall marks a moment when local concerns about water are running painfully high.

Recently I’ve been scrutinizing my consumer choices—in everyday life as well as my studio practice. I was determined not to buy anything new for this project and am now phasing out my use of this aluminum in favor of second-hand metals. And it is not the first time I have reactivated a water feature. As an Artist in Residence at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, I observed the Varney Circle fountain without water for months, prompting an intervention adorning it with indigo-dyed wool “water droplets” unraveled from my solo exhibition.