The Icelandic artist Rúrí has preserved 52 images and sounds of 46 Icelandic waterfalls all constructed in a beautiful brushed steel cabinet with extendable/retractable screens – similar to a print storage cabinet – on which each glass screen is a photograph of a waterfall. As the screen is pulled out, audio of the rushing sound of that particular waterfall is heard. Pulling out multiple screens envelope the listener in the simultaneous cascading sounds with beautiful effect (I’ve included an audio excerpt below). The audio installation bears witness to the endangerment of these natural phenomena, because since it was made, half of the waterfalls have gone silent. Through the example of a local situation, the work draws attention to the state of water and its global political affairs.
