on exhibit 10am-5pm through May 12 at Water Street Market
Admission is Free
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Artist Statement:
Deep End is a photographic exploration of an abandoned swimming pool's topography. By systematically mapping its eroded surface, I have approached the pool as the new terrain of an uncharted land.
The installation consists of 122 archival inkjet panels that fit together to re-create one corner of the pool's deep end. This three dimensional 1-to-1 reproduction is turned upside down, bringing the floor of the pool overhead. A bright blue hole in the ground becomes an enclosure, a huge unfolded map tacked to the wall and ceiling, and a suggested sky.
The pool is over fifty years old and was repaired season after season. As it decays, the layers of maintenance reveal various shades of blue, patches of cement, and bulging seams of tar. Each photographic panel is a modernist composition of decomposition.
The unnatural blue walls evoke the pool's origins as a clean, blank, chlorinated space. It was an underwater playground for generations of summer frolickers, a Hollywood blue screen against which countless fantasies were played out. This project honors this spirit of pretend adventure, situated within the pool's present state of decay.
Michael Asbill creates sculpture, environments and public art works tied to middle and working class spaces and things. His work has been shown across the country. Regionally he has shown at the Samuel Dorsky Museum, Kingston Museum of Contemporary Art, G.A.S., and Locust Grove the Samuel Morse Historic Site. Asbill has created public artworks for the Poughkeepsie Train Station, the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail and has participated in numerous art events throughout the Hudson Valley. He lives and makes art in an old Catskill camp.
Visit our artist's web site: Michael Asbill.
