Water is Just Water

Water comes in many varieties. It can be clear, brown, green or blue. It can be clean or dirty. It can be found in rivers, lakes, oceans, bathtubs or water bottles. It can inspire good art or bad art.

This season, the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum jumbles together every piece it can find that has anything to do with water. There are photographs, sculptures, videos and too many paintings in its most recent exhibition Water. It tries too hard.

Or, is the Zimmerli not trying hard enough? Honestly, how much brain power could it take to gather paintings depicting water landscapes? The exhibit aims to inspire its viewers to explore their relationship with water, the almighty creator and destroyer of earth's multitude of life forms. Even so, it's hard to think of anything other than bottled water, showers and swimming.

Amid the repetitive pieces the Zimmerli pulled from its other collections, there are a few works that stand out. One is Ross Cisneros' "Ice and Ark" that hangs in the gallery's entrance. A fishing net drapes from the ceiling, weighed down by what could be hundreds of plastic water bottles (Berg, made from Canadian water). Its symbolism is perfectly understandable; ever hear of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?

Another great piece is a terrifying cartoon-like piece by Paul Gauguin. Called "Les Drames de la Mer: Une Descente dans le Maelstrom" — or for the non-French speakers, "Dramas of the Sea: Descent into the Maelstrom" — the drawing looks like an ultrasound of the ocean. Because it's printed on bright yellow paper and resembles the ocean's fetus, Gauguin's piece brings humor to an oceanic whirlpool that probably killed hundreds of fishermen.

Surprisingly, Water includes a video piece that isn't absurd. Made by Bill Viola and titled "Absolutions," the color video diptych shows a half-naked man and half-naked woman approaching a never-ending stream of water. Basically, they wash their hands for minutes. Water has never looked so fluid.

Water's standout pieces cannot make up for the exhibit's overall drag. There are too many landscapes and not enough people. After the mind-numbing river recreations and beach settings from the 1800s, even the 70 or so photographs of global fountains at the end of the exhibit feel old. Props to the Zimmerli for branching out from Soviet art, but in the end, Water is just water.