Culture Shock

If you remember anything about Waterworld, it's probably the scene where Kevin Costner drinks his own piss. The rest was pretty forgettable. But the idea of a world where fresh water is a finite commodity is undeniably eerie. The reality is that water is the world's third largest financial industry, and demand for clean water will increase exponentially in the near future.

Spend It Like Water is a mixed-media group show opening Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. at the South Broadway Cultural Center (1025 Broadway SE, 848-1320). Gallery Curator Augustine Romero says the exhibit—comprised of 15 regional artists—is intended to promote awareness about the invaluable resource. "The show plays off the idea that it's so essential to our needs, but yet as a society we tend to take it for granted."

When browsing the gallery's cool, aquatic offerings, remember this: About 20 percent of the world's population lacks access to clean H2O, and 2 million people die every year from diseases related to that predicament. "Right now they say all the wars are about oil," Romero says. "In the future all the wars are going to be about water."

A spoken word and music event accompanies Thursday’s opening, and the show runs through Aug. 24.

Anyone who’s come to the Southwest from a region crowded by trees or buildings has undoubtedly been hit by the awesome shock of this land’s seemingly limitless expansion. And in a place where you can see a hundred miles in any direction, it’s easy to get lost—and to lose things.

This is, in a nutshell, the creative thread behind zinester John Skyler Wagner’s new collaborative project, “Between Places.” Wagner is calling for 1,500 word-or-less submissions that capture that feeling of isolation within an overwhelming landscape. Specifically, he’s documenting manmade objects left to their own devices in remote and rarely traveled areas.

Send your documentarian or fictional tales of time-lost treasures to johnskyler@toreadfromspace.com, or read more about the project at cl.ly/HV08.