Margaret Cogswell: Wyoming River Fugues

September 8 – December 21, 2012

Margaret Cogswell (American), develops her River Fugues through extensive research that includes traveling to observe, listen, and record both the general and specific landscapes, and search for that particular sound or image that captures the pulse of the rivers, the surrounding landscapes and life. Narratives from individuals who live or work along the rivers, or whose research and work focuses on the natural resources surrounding the rivers, have informed the direction of the development of Wyoming River Fugues. The resulting installation explores the complex relationship between Wyoming's natural, cultural, historic, engineered, and industrial landscapes.

Using the musical structure of the fugue, Cogswell edits video and audio components captured during her research into passages that reflect thematic repetition and variation. These are often embedded in the industrial-like sculptures of the installation, their machine-like form referencing efforts to control or harness river waters for industrial and agricultural gains.

Wyoming River Fugues is the seventh in a series of individually unique site-specific River Fugues projects, which began in 2003 with Cuyahoga Fugues. It was followed by Hudson Weather Fugues (2005); Hudson River Fugues (2009-10); Buffalo River Fugues (2006); Mississippi River Fugues (2008); and New River Fugues (a work in progress). Cogswell received an MFA in sculpture from Rutgers University, has received New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships (2007, 1993), Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grants (1987, 1991), and a Guggenheim Fellowship (2009). She lives and works in New York. For more information, visit Cogswell's website.

Image: Margaret Cogswell (American), Wyoming River Fugues: creek bank grasses and shallows, 2011, video stills: archival digital ink print, drawing: watercolor, colored pencils on paper, 30 x 22 inches, each, courtesy of the artist

Funded in part by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the UW Colonel Rogers Fund, UW Art Museum Gala Funds, and Wyoming Public Radio.