“Of Water”
By Joseph Rossano at the Gail Severn Gallery
The ‘Of Water’ exhibition will feature an installation of mirrored salmon-like forms, hand-blown from molten glass as well as paintings in graphite on panel that will include Salmon, Trout, Otters, Ducks, and Deer by Joseph Rossano. Photography of Salmon roe and rivers in the Sawtooth National Forest by Laura McPhee and paintings by additional artists will round out the exhibition. An installation of over 100 salmon-like forms will suspend from the gallery’s 24-foot ceiling and form a salmon ball that viewers can walk within and around.
These mirrored hand-blown sculptures suggest a ghost-like migration, capturing the fragility and resilience of wild salmon. Both elegant and reverent, the installation provides a space for meditation on this fragile ecosystem. Other works by Rossano will highlight riparian wildlife equally impacted by dwindling salmon populations. These works represent not only the loss of species but the disappearance of a process in which salmon fertilize forests, feed predators and cycle nutrients between land and sea. To discuss this wider ecological impact, Idaho Rivers United has partnered with Gail Severn Gallery and Joseph Rossano to provide a series of panel discussions with experts, nonprofits, and tribal leaders.
The Salmon School
Joseph Rossano is also the original artist and creator of The Salmon School which is an international traveling exhibition that brings to light the diminishing salmon and steelhead populations all over the world.
Joseph Rossano on the river.
The installation features a life-size school of mirrored salmon-like forms. These molten glass hand-blown salmon-like pieces are mirrored art, reflecting the viewer from every angle. The original forms were developed in conjunction with The Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington. Designers were able to create forms that were easy for other artists to replicate, so they too could demonstrate their shared concern for the plight of wild salmon.
Rossano describes the mirrored fish as “reflecting you,” and the surrounding “rainbow line” on the walls is the actual DNA sequence of the fish. This speaks to the resilience of the species—salmon and humans alike. Rossano hopes that viewers will not only see themselves in the fish but also see our connection to nature and acknowledge that we can be part of the solution.
At the end of the installation, a video screen shows diverse footage of wild salmon from all over the world, capturing their natural beauty as they alternate between freshwater and saltwater habitats, spawning in rivers and then spending their adult lives in the ocean.
Rossano hopes that all who attend The Salmon School will see the merging of science, art and academia. He hopes that we recognize ourselves in the fragile transparency of these mirrored fish and can see that our strength lies in our shared humanity.
The Salmon School was first displayed at the Bellevue Arts Museum in Washington State in 2019. Since then, the installation has moved to the United Nations Climate Change Summit in Glasgow in 2021, was part of the Queen’s Jubilee at Balmoral Castle in 2022, and later showed at St. Margaret’s Church in Braemar, Scotland, that same year. Following its UK tour, The Salmon School returned to the Pacific Northwest and The Museum of Glass in Tacoma—as an ambassador for the United Nations Decade of the Ocean and the United Nations International Year of Glass.
But the Salmon School is not simply an art installation.
The spillway at Lower Monumental Dam in Washington on the Snake River.
According to the website, www.thesalmonschool.com, “The Salmon School is an international merger of art and science, in service to all trying to do good for salmon, salmon peoples, and the cold, clean water on which they depend.”
The Salmon School is a human ecosystem of diverse stakeholders—scientists, artists, politicians, advocates, Indigenous peoples, NGOs, and communities—working to ensure that wild salmon and the rivers they call home are preserved for many generations to come. The installation features artisans from four continents and includes more than three dozen community, scientific, and conservation organizations that have come together–many for the first time—as part of The Salmon School partnership.
Like the fish themselves, The Salmon School migrates worldwide, motivated by the plight of wild salmon and advocating for change.
As part of The Salmon School, local communities and schools have been engaged through education initiatives and art projects designed for younger artists, including “design your own fish.” These easier but related projects allow younger people to have access to the artwork of the Salmon School, allowing its reach to continue and extend both geographically and demographically.
Salmon in The Snake
The four lower Snake River dams, Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite, were built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers between 1955 and 1975. The dams’ history is quite complex.
Salmon on their remarkable upstream journey.
Proponents of the dams believe they serve an invaluable purpose in navigation of barge traffic and the economy, agriculture, irrigation, and hydroelectric power generation for a large area. Those who argue for the breaching of the dams point to their negative impacts on salmon and steelhead populations and the overall ecosystem. Critics also point to some studies suggesting that the cost of the dams may outweigh the benefits, especially compared to the economic costs of salmon recovery, as well as the negative impact on tribal communities who have lost resources.
Greg McReynolds, executive director of Idaho Rivers United, is helping Gail Severn Gallery to organize their upcoming Salmon School Exhibit. He has authored a special feature story: Tamáalwit Is the Law. His article explores the conflict surrounding the dams and the treaties made with the Nez Perce.
An excerpt from McReynolds’ story states, “The land governs us. The water that runs in the rivers is the same water that runs in us. We breathe the same air that the trees breathe. The soil that holds the trees was nourished by salmon. The land sustains us, and we are beholden to it. The Nez Perce call it tamáalwit – it is the law that binds us to the land and makes us accountable.”