Ellen Kozak & Scott D. Miller: riverthatflowsbothways—An exhibition at the Hudson River Museum

riverthatflowsbothways is an immersive video installation on the movement and luminosity of the Hudson River, with images by Kozak and a string-ensemble score by Miller. Taking its name from the translation of the Lenape word for the Hudson River, Kozak and Miller’s unique collaboration weds three video channels with a single audio channel using non-synchronous loops that present viewers with ever-changing compositional combinations.

Kozak draws from her ongoing practice as a painter as well as from her background in the early formative years of video. Working beside the Hudson River, Kozak uses the river’s surface as a giant watery lens. Reflection, color, pattern, and sound coalesce within the gradually changing images, bringing viewers in contact with the river as a living organism. Without offering views or realistic representations riverthatflowsbothways creates a contemplative space that lengthens one’s sense of time, evokes feelings of wonderment and comfort, but also conjures presentiments of destabilizing undercurrents. Ecology, music, and dazzling visual imagery coalesce in Kozak and Miller’s work as a vital reminder of our connection to nature.

This exhibition is organized by the Hudson River Museum, and sponsored in part by Sound Associates, Inc. #EllenKozak #ScottDMiller #HRMAbstraction