Eskenazi artists explore Indiana's waterways in Ebb and Flow

Please visit the exhibition online at University Collections at McCalla or in person, at 525 N. Indiana Ave., Bloomington, Indiana.

Text courtesy University Collections.

Ebb and Flow is a two-person collaborative exhibition by painter/photographer Betsy Stirratt and printmaker Tracy Templeton. Exploring sites in Indiana for the last several years, the artists searched for and documented little-known places where water is central to the landscape and culture.

Ebb and Flow captures some of the waterways and mineral springs in the region. Much of Indiana’s history has been affected by the availability, movement, redirection, and innate properties of water. A chemical compound essential for life, water has medicinal and healing properties. It also has the power to carve stone and move earth. Some images address the history of these sites, with objects related to late-19th- and early-20th-century industry of area mineral springs, while others look at the history of tourism in these locations.

Subterranean flows and hidden water systems abound in Southern Indiana. Limestone karst features such as sinkholes, disappearing streams, caves, and springs are numerous, and much of this photographic documentation highlights the way water has shifted and molded the local sandstone and limestone geology. These images of the Lost River, limestone caves, and karst drainage systems capture enduring features of the landscape that are easily overlooked.

Stirratt and Templeton’s creative careers have often focused on historical elements – from archived materials to landscape. Working together for the first time, Ebb and Flow combines the artists’ interests and expertise to create a unique, collaborative vision of Indiana’s rich geography and culture.

This project was part of Platform, an Arts and Humanities Research Laboratory, supported by the The Office of the Vice Provost for Research and the Arts and Humanities Council at IU Bloomington.