CHICAGO.- Whether tranquil and pristine or foreboding and torrent, water has a gripping, almost magnetic, effect on its witnesses. Typically associated with more traditional art, marine themes also play key roles in contemporary art. Upon an Ether Sea: Water and Ship Imagery from the MCA Collection, on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Chicago, May 26 to September 9, 2007, provides an inclusive look at the theme’s proliferation through diverse media.

The exhibition primarily focuses on sculpture and photography, but also includes video, painting, and screen prints. One of the highlights of the exhibition, H.C. Westermann’s Death Ship of No Port, evokes visions of epic sea sagas, derelict ships, mysterious waters, and tales of mutiny. The work references Westermann’s own experiences as a marine in World War II and the Korean War. Other sculptural works include Jeff Koons’s bronze sculpture Lifeboat, and Rafael Ferrer’s corrugated steel Kayak #2: Norte.

Photographer Lynn Davis’s dramatic series Icebergs contrasts Brett Weston’s abstracted ice and water imagery in Alaska, illustrating varying approaches despite similar themes and media. Other photography featured in the exhibition includes Toshio Shibata’s intriguing portrayals of U.S. dams.

Upon an Ether Sea also exhibits the haunting and hypnotic video Sip My Ocean by Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist, which is projected in duplicate as mirrored reflections on adjoining walls. The video’s soundtrack, an arrangement comprising the artist’s own crooning and shrieking, combines with the video’s languid imagery for a mesmerizing effect.

Introducing new work by Indian-American artist Indira Freitas Johnson, the exhibition presents photographs and a video from her latest project, Where Sky Meets Water. Inspired by South Asian folk art traditions and ancient ritual practices, Freitas Johnson incises canna leaves with the Sanskrit syllable Om, a symbol associated with spiritual presence. En masse, the leaves are released on rivers and seas around the world as offerings for peace.

The exhibition also includes two screen prints by Roy Lichtenstein and a collection of artists’ books accompany the exhibition. This exhibition is curated by MCA Curator Lynne Warren.