“Rain” Travels to the Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern January 3, 2017
Rain: Magdalena Fernández at the Houston Cistern
Photo by Peter Molick; courtesy of the artist and Sicardi Gallery
The inaugural art installation in the Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern is straight from the Museum’s own collection! The MFAH teamed up with Buffalo Bayou Partnership to present Rain: Magdalena Fernández at the Houston Cistern, on view through June 25.
Rain features 2iPM009, an abstract video-projection piece created by Venezuelan artist Magdalena Fernández in 2009. She adapted the installation to be projected onto the cistern’s 221 columns.
The cistern’s cavernous interior and 17-second acoustic reverberation time make for an immersive art environment as the 1-minute, 56-second video plays on a loop. The installation’s sounds evoke a thunderstorm—a watery theme that complements the cistern, which was built as a drinking-water reservoir in 1926 for the City of Houston and still features a floor of shallow water. MFAH visitors may remember 2iPM009 when it was part of the 2015–16 exhibition Contingent Beauty: Contemporary Art from Latin America.
The Rain installation is on view through June 4 at the Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern, located near downtown Houston at 105 Sabine Street. Learn more and book tours at buffalobayou.org, and follow along on social media with #CisternRain.
