Richard and Doug Harned

RICHARD AND DOUG HARNED

Water Theater, 2015

Wood, 20 perforated steel plates, welded steel chandelier, 12 lenses, antique (1940s) aluminum school globe, 26 geodesic dome hubs, 16 umbrellas, 3 DVDs, 3 DVD players, 3 video projectors, 3 Happy Drinking Dippy Birds

Richard Harned (Columbus, Ohio) and Doug Harned (Cary, North Carolina) are brothers and frequent collaborators who create environmental sculptural installations incorporating often-humorous, post-modern warnings about technology’s impact on nature.

Water Theater is inspired by molecular changes in the three states of water: solid, liquid, and gas. The installation poetically combines the three states of water with the overarching global issue of climate change.

Shaped like a grain storage silo or the containment structure of a nuclear reactor, Water Theater, by contrast, generates a sense of whimsy and wonder with its geodesic dome popping with umbrellas imprinted with maps of the solid ice of Greenland and the North Pole. The umbrellas protect an earth globe painted with a chalkboard surface from the rain: water as a liquid. Perched above each of the sculpture’s three thresholds is a Happy Drinking Dippy Bird which signals another change occurring in the state of water: liquid to vapor.

Inside the structure, a chandelier of a dozen lenses hangs from the globe, like a dozen detectives, facing three walls of perforated steel upon which are projected images of water in its three states. Water Theater’s three-channel video takes the viewer on a descent down the Eiffel Tower, which operates as a symbol of the launch of the Industrial Age. Images of overlaid natural environments and animals are interwoven into the backgrounds. Periodically, the video features an omnipresent Happy Drinking Dippy Bird pecking a Morse code message of the perilously tipping climate point that industry has brought.

Richard Harned is a Professor of Art at Ohio State University. He specializes in sculpture and kinetic sculptural installations that utilize properties of glass and technology. His work has appeared in 10 solo and 167 group exhibitions in 27 states and 6 countries. Harned has received an array of Individual Artist Fellowships in sculpture, craft, and media arts from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ohio Arts Council, and the Greater Columbus Arts Council.

Doug Harned is a scientist and award-winning filmmaker with a Master of Science in hydrology. During his career, he has worked on many important surface and groundwater projects in the southeastern United States and has made important contributions to the analysis of trends in water quality. Harned has used his creative skills to produce more than 90 films that have been instrumental in communicating United States Geological Survey activities to the public.

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