Every Body a Water Body, Every Field a Clock

Lisa Woods opens her new exhibition, Every Body a Water Body, Every Field a Clock, at Women & Their Work on Saturday, October 10, with a reception from 7 PM to 9 PM. The show runs through November 22 at the gallery, 1311 E. Cesar Chavez in Lower East Austin.

Woods builds the whole thing around the Ogallala Aquifer, that massive groundwater source across West Texas that takes centuries to recharge and is disappearing faster than it can refill. It's a heavy subject, but she treats it as a starting point for a world where technology, ecology, and mythology all tangle together. The installation follows that water as it moves through agriculture, technology, and human bodies, turning irrigation machinery and groundwater into something strange and animate through kinetic sculpture, ceramics, and video projection.

There's a real tension at the center of it: the mechanical, industrial side of modern farming set against the fluid, animistic quality of water. Woods pulls from groundwater science and new animism—the idea that the world is full of persons, and only some of them are human. You can try your hand at water divination while you're there, and the whole thing is meant to make you think about how that aquifer connects back to the food on your own dinner table. The show builds toward a monumental sculpture of the Ogallala reimagined as an ancient subterranean goddess.

It's a lot to take in—science, mythology, and a disappearing resource—and it's free to visit. The opening reception is Saturday, October 10, from 7 PM to 9 PM, and the exhibition stays up through November 22 at Women & Their Work, 1311 E. Cesar Chavez.