USI visiting artist to discuss “commodification of water”

The University of Southern Indiana Art Department will host visiting artist, curator and environmentalist, Sant Khalsa. Khalsa is professor emeritus from California State University, San Bernardino, and will be speaking about her work at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, October 29 in the Liberal Arts Center, Room 1003.

In Khalsa’s 60-photo series, “Western Waters,” she addresses the “commodification of water,” based on the public’s consumption of bottled water, due to concerns over drinking tap water. “Western Waters” is a photograph installation piece featuring images of water stores in southwestern states, and arranged like a road trip map. “Today, plastic bottles have replaced earthen vessels,” Khalsa said, “and to fetch our water, we travel in polluting automobiles to and from this fabricated representation of a river, well or spring.”

Khalsa’s work has been exhibited internationally and acquired by permanent museum collections, such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Center for Creative Photography in Tucson and Nevada Museum of Art. She is represented by Kopeikin Gallery in Los Angeles.

Sponsored by the Society for Arts and Humanities, the USI College of Liberal Arts and the USI Art Department, the lecture is free and open to the public.

For more information contact Kristen Wilkins at kswilkins@usi.edu or 812-464-1746.