In Jen Bervin’s large-scale sculptural installation River an intricate model of the Mississippi River in silver sequins is inverted, mapped from a geocentric perspective (from inside the earth’s interior looking up at the riverbed).
The artist sewed the 230 curvilinear feet long sculpture by hand, at a scale of one inch to one mile, including each of the thousands of reflective, silver sequins that densely cover the surface. It took twelve years to make: the same amount of time to sew each section of river that it would to walk the real one.
The archipelagoes of the delta, south of New Orleans in the Gulf of Mexico, are mirrored. Wherever the piece is exhibited, the people and the space around them are reflected. Bervin has used mirroring themes “as above so below” and cartographic structures across her project landscapes. Toni Morrison writes: “You know, they straightened out the Mississippi River in places… Occasionally the river floods these places. ‘Floods’ is the word they use, but in fact it is not flooding; it is remembering. Remembering where it used to be. All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.”
The exhibition premiere was organized by Director of Curatorial Affairs / Senior Curator Alison Ferris at the I.M. Pei Sculpture Gallery at the Des Moines Art Center (October 19, 2018 – January 27, 2019), selected as an Artforum Critics’ Pick.
Additional support for this work has been provided by The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation Residency and the Rauschenberg Residency.