On the week of August 26, 2024, the PHI Foundation hosted Sentient | Disobedient, a video program curated by gallery manager and adjunct curator Victoria Carrasco. The program was inspired by a desire to explore and amplify voices and ideas around contemporary feminism within video art and performance practices. One of the featured works, Surface Depth (2023) by Montréal-based artist Nina Vroemen, delves into a personal yet philosophical exploration of our physical and conceptual relationships with water. Vroemen references the work of cultural historian Astrida Neimanis, particularly her book Bodies of Water: Post-Humanist Feminist Phenomenology. Neimanis uses phenomenology to examine how humans perceive and interact with bodies of water in their environments. These perceptions and experiences vary between cultures largely due to political and socio-economic factors that can make water more or less accessible to certain groups of people.
In Surface Depth, Vroemen uses found and archival imagery of water juxtaposed with bodies; fish swimming, birds flying over the sea, kids jumping into pools, and people playing in water parks. These joyful moments are interspersed with time-lapses of glaciers melting and images of man-made technological apparatuses polluting and extracting these same waters—highlighting water’s integral role in life on this planet. Accompanying these visuals, Vroemen narrates poetic reflections: “Do I remember the flow of the river? In this moment, I am more than a body, I am a body of water”. [1] These words prompt reflection on my personal relationships with water and the concept of embodiment. To “be” a body of water would entail a mindful awareness of where the waters that are imbued in us come from and where they go after, remembering the flow of the river. Vroemen’s work invites deeper reflection into the connection between human bodies and water bodies, and how race, ethnicity, and gender, can affect one’s relationship with water. Through a post-colonial, orientalist, and intersectional lens, I aim to connect issues revolving around political movements advocating for equitable access to clean water from marginalized communities, whether here in Canada or in my homeland of Kurdistan.
As Canadians, many of us enjoy free access to clean water, yet Indigenous communities face high-risk water systems and frequent drinking water advisories. [2] This cultural disconnect allows many to consume water mindlessly, even excessively, [3] while freshwater becomes increasingly scarce. Yet, its consumption does not seem to be slowing down among those of us living with better accessibility, all the while clean water remains unavailable to people who have been uprooted from their lands to make room for settlers. This phenomenon is tied to capitalist extractivist practices, which commodify water, limiting its access to certain groups of people while discouraging mindfulness of our privileges and our bodily relationship with water and nature [4]. These practices, rooted in colonial traditions, undermine the scarcity of natural elements while re-defining them and managing them in ways that aren’t sustainable or ecological. [5] These practices contribute to a hegemonic understanding of water and nature, one that regards them as entities separate from civilization, transcendent and disembodied from the world. [6] Capitalist extractivism creates a culture where water is treated as an inanimate commodity to be managed, regulated, and distributed, but not shared in an egalitarian manner. [7] In her work, Vroemen critiques this extractivist mindset, referring to it as “a sickness in the Network, a continuous feeding. Scrolling, staring deep into the stream that has no nourishment, quenches no thirst,” after reaffirming her love for the planet and disapproving of Elon Musk and his strife to colonize Mars. [8] The profiteering machine of extractivism does not seem to know an end, yet if we were more aware of our bodily connection to water, could we prevent its depletion and ensure universal access?
This culture of overconsumption is rooted in colonial and patriarchal histories that often feminize nature and bodies of water. [9] In the colonial mindset, this allowed for a form of labeling where “native topographies and peoples [were marked] as feminine spaces to be violated and thereby instantiated a sexual/racial hierarchy between colonizer and colonized”. [10] This dynamic is evident in places where ethnic minorities have their lands subjected to state-sanctioned control for resource extraction. In Kurdistan, for example, farmers’ access to the waters of the Tigris-Euphrates basin has been restricted for a damming project that grants the Turkish government complete control over the water flow. This impacts the livelihoods of Kurdish rural farmers in southern Türkiye [11] and northern Iraq, who rely on water for irrigation while representing the majority of the population inhabiting this region. [12] This need for political control over natural resources reflects the colonizer’s masculine self-image and “god-given” right to subjugate both people and land. [13] The damming project in Kurdistan is framed by the state as a prosperous venture for the local economy that would bring about “modernization” to the Kurdish regions where, according to damming project executives, people live “feudal” and “patriarchal” lives. [14] This language overlooks the history of violence, erasure, and repression, that created poverty in the region. The plight of Kurdish women is used as a political tool to advance capitalist goals that would “modernize” the region and give way to Western ideals of individualism and feminism, while completely disregarding the violent and oppressive historical events that shaped this plight. Sentiments of extremist nationalism and local conflicts between the ethnic groups in Türkiye have led to regional economic impoverishment as a state-sanctioned response to violence. [15] Rather than addressing issues of socioeconomic inequalities between ethnic groups, the Turkish government seeks control over water in the region and by extension, control over the quality of life. This practice is void of any mindfulness to sharing what is essential to life; it disembodies people from the nature that surrounds them, rendering essential resources into commodities.
The practice of “embodying water,” heavily referenced in Neimanis’ writing, is reflected throughout Vroemen’s work; whether by reaffirming her embodiment of water or criticizing capitalist expansion projects that prioritize territorial and economic gain over equitable water access. It further demonstrates the extent to which the culture of capitalist extractivism is willing to go for economic benefit, disregarding ecological conservation and embodied relationships with nature. The politics surrounding bodies of water are deeply connected to the socioeconomic conditions that people are subjected to. Through colonialism and capitalist expansion, cultural perceptions of bodies of water have been uprooted and often changed from a mindful and dynamic, embodied practice, to a consumable commodity or product. Western colonialism has historically treated nature and water in the same way as Indigenous peoples, especially women—subject to regulation and domination by the self-proclaimed righteous, rational, and masculine. This has historically created many instances where ethnic minorities are subjected to colonial and capitalist policies that dictate their economic material conditions and their relationship to the land; since the lands and waters are seized, the Indigenous lifestyle that is typically more phenomenologically mindful of the lived environment is now under political control. This mindful approach, which is vaguely echoed through the words in Vroemen’s video—“I am every body of water”—calls for greater awareness of global freshwater politics. Suppose every droplet of water that has existed still exists in a different phase or place, shouldn’t we care about every single body of water on the planet, and by extension, everyone affected by the politics surrounding these waters?
[1] Nina Vroemen, “Surface Depth,” Vimeo, 2023
[2] Lori E. Bradford et al., “Drinking Water Quality in Indigenous Communities in Canada and Health Outcomes: A Scoping Review,” International Journal of Circumpolar Health 75, no. 1 (January 31, 2016): 32336, https://doi.org/10.3402/ijch.v....
[3] Diane Dupont, W. L. (Vic) Adamowicz, and Alan Krupnick, “Differences in Water Consumption Choices in Canada: The Role of Socio-Demographics, Experiences, and Perceptions of Health Risks,” Journal of Water and Health 8, no. 4 (May 27, 2010): 671–86, https://doi.org/10.2166/wh.201....
[4] Astrida Neimanis, Bodies of Water: Posthuman Feminist Phenomenology (London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017).
[5] Alice B. Kelly and Nancy Lee Peluso, “Frontiers of Commodification: State Lands and Their Formalization,” Society & Natural Resources 28, no. 5 (May 4, 2015): 473–95, https://doi.org/10.1080/089419....
[6] Stacey Alaimo, “Trans-Corporeality,” Posthuman Glossary, 2018, https://doi.org/10.5040/978135....
[7] Eleanor Ruth Hayman, “Shaped by the Imagination: Myths of Water, Women, and Purity,” RCC Perspectives 2, no. On Water: Perceptions, Politics, Perils (January 1, 2012): 23–34, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2....
[8] Nina Vroemen, “Surface Depth,” Vimeo, 2023. “Cold rock and gas, Earth is where I wanna be. Fuck Living on Mars, Fuck Elon Musk, that isn’t even an option [...]”
[9] Eleanor Ruth Hayman, “Shaped by the Imagination: Myths of Water, Women, and Purity,” RCC Perspectives 2, no. On Water: Perceptions, Politics, Perils (January 1, 2012): 23–34, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2....
[10] Suzana Sawyer and Arun Agrawal, “Environmental Orientalisms,” Cultural Critique, no. 45 (2000): 71, https://doi.org/10.2307/135436....
[11] The spelling of “Türkiye” reflects the nation’s decision to officialize the Turkish spelling of their state-name, formerly referred to as “Turkey”, which was recognized by the United Nations in 2022. https://turkiye.un.org/en/184798-turkeys-name-changed-t%C3%BCrkiye
[12] Leila M. Harris, “Theorizing Gender, Ethnic Difference, and Inequality in Relation to Water Access and Politics in Southeastern Turkey,” The Politics of Fresh Water, December 8, 2016, 157–71, https://doi.org/10.4324/978131....
[13] Edward W. Said, Orientalism (London: Penguin Books, 1995).
[14] Leila M. Harris, “Theorizing Gender, Ethnic Difference, and Inequality in Relation to Water Access and Politics in Southeastern Turkey,” The Politics of Fresh Water, December 8, 2016, 157–71, https://doi.org/10.4324/978131....
[15] Leila M. Harris, “Theorizing Gender, Ethnic Difference, and Inequality in Relation to Water Access and Politics in Southeastern Turkey,” The Politics of Fresh Water, December 8, 2016, 157–71, https://doi.org/10.4324/978131....
Author: Ibrahim Mahmoud
Ibrahim Mahmoud is a visual artist, cultural worker, and art technician based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. He earned a BFA in Photography with a concentration in social studies at Concordia University, where he developed a strong interest in working with image-based media and archives. Mahmoud has participated in several group exhibitions and artist talks, showcasing his research in image formalism and landscape representation. His work explores the phenomenology of diasporic belonging and cultural identity, using still and moving images to investigate narratives and perceptions of the self in relation to landscape and lived environments.
The PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art invites emerging and established artists, local and national, to submit a video work for the final part of the Sentient | Disobedient video program, which will take place from March 3 to 9, 2025.
Deadline: January 15, 2025
This article was written as part of Platform. Platform is an initiative created and driven jointly by the PHI Foundation’s education, curatorial and Visitor Experience teams. Through varied research, creation and mediation activities in which they are invited to explore their own voices and interests, Platform fosters exchanges while acknowledging the Visitor Experience team members’ expertise.
Foundation
Gathering over forty recent works, DHC/ART’s inaugural exhibition by conceptual artist Marc Quinn is the largest ever mounted in North America and the artist’s first solo show in Canada
Foundation
Six artists present works that in some way critically re-stage films, media spectacles, popular culture and, in one case, private moments of daily life
Foundation
This poetic and often touching project speaks to us all about our relation to the loved one
Foundation
DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art is pleased to present the North American premiere of Christian Marclay’s Replay, a major exhibition gathering works in video by the internationally acclaimed artist
Foundation
DHC/ART is pleased to present Particles of Reality, the first solo exhibition in Canada of the celebrated Israeli artist Michal Rovner, who divides her time between New York City and a farm in Israel
Foundation
The inaugural DHC Session exhibition, Living Time, brings together selected documentation of renowned Taiwanese-American performance artist Tehching Hsieh’s One Year Performances and the films of young Dutch artist, Guido van der Werve
Foundation
Eija-Liisa Ahtila’s film installations experiment with narrative storytelling, creating extraordinary tales out of ordinary human experiences
Foundation
For more than thirty years, Jenny Holzer’s work has paired text and installation to examine personal and social realities
