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Circulator

Jim Blashfield

Brightwater

Everyday movements of water take on poetic meaning in this otherworldly audio and video installation.

Jim Blashfield. Circulator, 2011. High definition video, audio, LCD screens, and galvanized and painted steel. Brightwater, Woodinville, WA. King County Public Art Collection. Photo: Benjamin Benschneider

In the lobby of Brightwater's Environmental Education Center, this seven-screen audio and video installation follows a transformative journey of water from its source, through several phases of treatment, and finally to its return to the ocean.

The piece uses five rectangular screens mounted on the wall, one circular screen mounted below them, and another circular screen embedded in the floor like a porthole. From screen to screen, elements of the natural and human-made worlds combine, dissipate, and reform. Dreamlike images morph from one to the next: a pond becomes a tank and a house offers shelter from a wet world, then becomes a bit of detritus flowing from storm drains. Like water and the ecosystem itself, each image manifests as several things at once.
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Jim Blashfield. Circulator (video still), 2011. High definition video, audio, LCD screens, and galvanized and painted steel. Brightwater, Woodinville, WA. King County Public Art Collection.
Jim Blashfield. Circulator (detail), 2011. High definition video, audio, LCD screens, and galvanized and painted steel. Brightwater, Woodinville, WA. King County Public Art Collection. Photo: 4Culture
 

Media

 

Jim Blashfield. Making Circulator, 2011. Digital video. Brightwater, Woodinville, WA. King County Public Art Collection

 

About the Location

Brightwater

Science, art, design, and ecology come together at Brightwater, one of the largest wastewater treatment facilities in the world. Located north of Woodinville, WA, Brightwater comprises a park, a community gathering space, an exhibition hall, and a scientific learning laboratory in addition to the structures that house technical operations. Throughout the site, integrated and portable…

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