Rainbender

Oscar Tuazon
b. 1975

Rainbender
2018
Velux skylights, aluminum, steel, borosilicate glass, vinyl, Sharpie, enamel, and water courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York

These three suspended works refer to the establishment of Oscar Tuazon’s Los Angeles Water School (LAWS). Like the Water School at MSU, LAWS occupies a section of Tuazon’s larger Zome Alloy (2016) sculpture, and is context-responsive. It serves local communities and is geared most directly at addressing water politics germane to its immediate environment. For the past year the artist has invited numberous community groups and organizations to present programs and host conversations to address water politics in the region. The design of the Rainbender refers to another of Steve Baer’s inventions known as the Sunbender, which harnesses indirect sunlight to illuminate a space or building. This re-conceptualization of the form is a speculative design for capturing rainfall in a city that receives less than fifteen inches of rain a year.

Rural Rocket

Oscar Tuazon
b. 1975

Rural Rocket
2018
Stainless steel,refractory brick, wood, and fire Courtesy the artist.

As an artist, Oscar Tuazon has a deep appreciation for the foundational elements of water, air, and fire. many of his works are created with these elements in mind, or as part of their very nature. This work was made on-site, based on a DIY design for a “rocket mass heater” (or rocket stove) Tuazon developed with the Dutch inventor and tinkerer Peter van den Berg. Van den berg is known for his innovations with supper-efficient rocket stoves, which are assembled out of easily obtainable materials and generate significant heat yields using minimal fuel resources like most between art objects and functional tool –a division the artist challenges, his works often occupying both positions simultaneously.

Water Maps

Oscar Tuazon

b.1975

Water Maps (2018-2019)

Paint, marker, and white-out on US Geological Survey maps, Courtesy of the artist.

These works are the latest in an ongoing series in which Oscar Tuazon maps water systems in the different locations in which he works. For Each exhibition of the Water Maps, he creates versions specific to that locale. Michigan has one of the longest coastlines in the US, surrounded by a massive reservoir of fresh water. Yet access to clean, safe water remains a problem for many residents, and the overall health of the Great Lakes is at risk. These works thus intend to create greater awareness of the sources of water that surround and connect us, in hopes of inspiring mindfulness and care for this most important element.

Water School Library

The books featured in this space have been borrowed from the MSU Libraries, carefully selected for inclusion by the artist and staff members at the museum. Like a typical library, the books are categorized according to different disciplines, which range from art, architecture, environmental sustainability and activism, indigenous studies, systems theory, and history, to name a few.

These books are available to visitors to peruse at their leisure. To aid in the navigation of these materials, visitors are also invited to use the flagging system created for the library, using the available bookmarks to mark a favorite page or passage.

Please help us to maintain the space by returning the books to their general location. The bibliography for the Water School is located here to download.

Oscar Tuazon Water School

Water covers roughly 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, and makes up more than 60 percent of the human body. We are water, and water connects us all. To engage with this exhibition, it is important to start with this understanding . Water is a source of life, it is sacred, and it is a tool. Water teaches us, and we can learn from it. Water is a kind of school.

Conceived in this way, Oscar Tuazon: Water School will unfold over the course of several months, and radiates in many directions, touching on art, architecture, spatial design, systems thinking, and environmental sustainability. Its anchor is a section of Tuazon’s large-scale, architecture-as-sculpture Zome Alloy (2016), which houses reading materials sourced from the MSU Libraries. For, as the artist notes, “A school starts with a library.”

Other works on view point to the artist’s ongoing investigations into the conceptual and material dimensions of water politics and sustainable building practices, and tie together the Water School in Michigan with the artist’s schools in California and Minnesota. These schools are spaces connecting local concerns with national and international conversations.

Situated within a highly regarded research university, the exhibition also features archival and documentary materials, tracing sources that inform the artist’s work and topics covered in the exhibition. This includes research into the countercultural and environmental movements of the 1960s and 1970s, highlighting the work of key figures and important publications. These histories continue to influence the present — a critical moment when new ideas and approaches to environmental issues are very much needed.

The Engine

The spaceships of the akai use the state of the art engines. These engines utilize a 3000x ion flux capacitor, allowing them to go 300x the speed of light. They give off almost no heat and are the size of a car. Whoever said “The Future is now” is correct.