This work was on view in the show Future Continuous in Kunsthaus Hamburg as part of Sohorab Rabbey’s installation Deep Down the Elbe, Up above the Teesta (2025)

One of the striking artistic encounters I was privileged to have at the Künstlerdorf Schöppingen in the summer of 2025 was with the work of the Bangladeshi artist Sohorab Rabbey. His presentation—centered largely around the framework of “hydrotrauma”, or the “psycho-physical hazard” faced by the indigenous communities in the Bengal Delta—was deeply moving. It reminded me that, in my subconscious, water has always held a strong and at times troubling presence, even if I may hear the term hydrotrauma differently than Rabbey.

I was immediately reminded of the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami of 2011, followed by the Fukushima nuclear accident. At the time I was in New York, still a doctoral student at Columbia University, feeling incredibly powerless as I was glued to the livestream footage on the internet. I also thought of the powerful orchestral triptych Maim (Water) by Chaya Czernowin, which in part evokes memory deeply gashed by the trauma of September 11, 2001. Of course, there is also another aspect of water: the possibility of peaceful cohabitation with human beings. I explored this idea in another electronic work I created at Künstlerdorf Schöppingen, Tea Ceremony with Grains (Homage to Imane Zoubai). Having been asked by Rabbey to contribute a sound piece to be placed in dialogue with works by other artists, it felt natural for me to return to the concerns of Rabbey’s hydrotrauma.

Of the sound files Rabbey sent, I used only two: “River waters loop.mp3” and “Hydrophone Underwater Gargle Bubbling Ringing wav.wav.” The result is essentially a sound sculpture in which the sound of the river is revealed and then concealed over the span of eleven minutes. Throughout this process, the underwater hydrophone recording offers commentary. I was reminded of a YouTube video I watched not long ago, in which a newscaster explores the riverhead of the Tone River deep in the mountains of the Kantō region of Japan, discovering that the source of this major river is nothing more than a single droplet of water.

I dedicate this piece to Sohorab Rabbey.