Our mothers, our water, our peace

By Gyun Hur

A Living Archive of Memory, Loss, and Renewal

Our mothers, our water, our peace, an immersive installation and community-centered project by Korean American artist Gyun Hur, will open at the Goat Farm for a two-week engagement, offering performances, workshops, and artist talks—all free and open to the public.

Rooted in the experiences of the Atlanta Asian community, Our mothers, Our water, Our peace explores grief, resilience, and the power of collective healing. Created in response to the rise in anti-Asian violence during the pandemic and the tragic 2021 Atlanta spa shootings, this project speaks to universal themes of loss, remembrance, and the ongoing search for belonging. Through gathering, reflection, and storytelling, Hur invites audiences to consider how we hold grief, honor our histories, and foster intergenerational connections across communities.

Over the past year, 100 delicate glass vessels filled with water from local rivers and creeks were placed in public and private spaces across Atlanta. Locations included Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Atlanta, the Asian American Advocacy Fund, the Lawrenceville Arts Center, the Alliance Theatre’s Hertz Stage, and 12 individual Asian American family homes. These vessels, installed with the support of artist and community liaison Nicole Kang Ahn, became quiet yet profound symbols of healing, care, and justice—markers of the unseen labor of remembrance and resilience.

Now, these vessels return to form a communal site of reflection, remembrance, and connection at The Goat Farm, coinciding with the fourth anniversary of the 2021 Atlanta spa shootings. As a living archive, the installation illuminates often invisible histories—the labor of love, the weight of loss, and the strength of those who continue to build, resist, and dream.

A music score by Hahn Rowe will accompany the installation.

For two weeks, visitors are invited to engage with this space through performances, workshops, and artist talks, fostering opportunities for reflection, gathering, and solidarity.

Images: Hur by MacKenna Lewis for The New School, community filing vessels with water at Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Atlanta offices by Chengyourlife Media, and installation views by Christina Washington

Our mothers, our water, our peace는 한국계 미국인 작가 허견이 조성한 기억, 슬픔, 그리고 회복의 장소입니다. 애틀랜타 아시아 커뮤니티의 경험을 바탕으로 한 이 작업은 팬데믹 동안 증가한 반(反)아시안 폭력과 2021년 애틀랜타 스파 총격 사건에 대한 응답으로 시작되었습니다. 모임과 헌정, 그리고 반추의 행위를 통해, 허견은 우리가 공동의 슬픔을 어떻게 담아내고, 그것을 어떻게 돌봄으로 전환할 수 있는지에 대한 질문을 던집니다.

지난 1년 동안, 허견은 100개의 유리 조형물에 지역 강과 시냇물의 물을 담아 애틀랜타 아시아계 미국인 커뮤니티의 공공 및 개인 공간에 배치했습니다. 이러한 조형물들은 Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Atlanta, Asian American Advocacy Fund, Lawrenceville Arts Center, Alliance Theatre의 Hertz Stage를 비롯한 다양한 공간과 12곳의 아시아계 가정에 설치되어, 세대 간 치유와 소속감에 대한 은은한 증표가 되었습니다. 아티스트이자 커뮤니티 연계자 니콜 강 안(Nicole Kang Ahn)의 지원을 통해, 이 프로젝트는 개인과 공동체의 상실, 생존, 사랑에 대한 서사를 연결해 왔습니다.

이제 이 유리 조형물들은 한데 모여 살아있는 기록이자, 친밀한 별자리 같은 설치 작품이 되었습니다. 정의와 돌봄이라는 보이지 않는 노동을 기리는 이 공간은, 유리와 물, 빛이 서로 어우러지며 공동체의 유대가 가진 연약함과 강인함을 동시에 반영하는 장이 됩니다. 그리고 우리에게 묻습니다:

          우리는 어떻게 서로를 위한 공간을 마련할 것인가?
          우리는 세대를 넘어 슬픔을 어떻게 품을 것인가?
          우리는 기억을 어떻게 평화로 변화시킬 것인가?

이 설치 작품과 함께, 퍼포먼스, 워크숍, 대화의 프로그램이 전시 공간을 넘어 확장되며, 성찰과 연대의 순간을 제공합니다.

FLOW

With Our mothers, our water, our peace, Flux Projects continues FLOW, a multi-year series designed to explore Atlanta’s history with water, how it has shaped our city, and the potential it holds for our future. FLOW engages issues of conservation, equity, and urban design through installations and performances around the city.

About the Artist

Gyun Hur is a New York-based interdisciplinary artist and an educator whose biographical context as a first-generation immigrant largely informs her creative practice and pedagogical approach. Born in South Korea, she moved to Atlanta, Georgia at the age of 13 and studied painting and sculpture at the University of Georgia and Savannah College of Art and Design. She currently lives in Brooklyn and teaches at Parsons School of Design, The New School as an Assistant Professor of Fine Arts.

In Gyun’s practice, she is deeply engaged in generating poetics of beauty and grief in visual and emotional spaces she creates. Through iterations of installations, performances, drawings, and writings, Gyun traverses between autobiographical abstraction and figurative storytelling, asking what holds us together; stories, yearnings, rituals, and spirituality.

Our mothers, our water, our peace is Gyun’s second major project with Flux Projects.  Her first, Spring Hiatus , was presented in Lenox Square mall in 2011 and was the subject of Flux Film 007.  In both works, Gyun invites the audience to participate in this labor of unraveling our layered, perplexing stories with grace and time.

About Hahn Rowe, composer

Hahn Rowe is a composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist whose work spans rock, classical, film, theater, improvised, and electronic music. With a uniquely personal sonic language, he seamlessly blends these genres into dynamic, ever-shifting soundscapes. After arriving in New York City in the early 1980s, he became immersed in its vibrant music and art scenes, performing with the Glenn Branca Ensemble and joining the “chamber rock” group Hugo Largo. His diverse musical journey has included collaborations with Hassan Hakmoun, Jim Thirwell, Moby, R.E.M., Swans, and Yoko Ono, as well as production work with David Byrne and Mimi Goese.

A three-time New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie) winner, Rowe has composed for dance and theater, working extensively with choreographers like Meg Stuart, Benoît Lachambre, and Bebe Miller. His film and television scores include Clean, Shaven, Spring Forward, and Sing Your Song. Recent projects feature collaborations on Ghost Telephone (Biennale of Sydney), A Possibility (Manchester International Festival 2025), and Adam Pendleton’s Who Is Queen (MoMA, 2022). With a career rooted in boundary-pushing experimentation, Rowe continues to shape contemporary soundscapes across multiple artistic disciplines.

See Also

BOMB Magazine interview by Melissa Joseph

Watch Sawyer Buccy's segment on WANF TV

ArtsATL's 9 essential Atlanta arts events this weekend

Interview on City Lights with Lois Reitzes

Cathy Fox article on ArtsATL

Cathy Fox article in the AJC

Atlanta Magazine article on FLOW series

Support

Our mothers, our water, our peace is commissioned by Flux Projects and supported in part by Perennial Properties, the National Endowment for the Arts, a Henry H. Arnhold Forum Fellowship through Parsons School of Design, The New School, and Goat Farm.

Host Committee

Rebecca & Mick Cochran /  Nicky Cohen & Simon Dibley  /  Louis Corrigan  /Brandon Hatton  / Yong Pak / Lynn Pollard  /  Alexandra Sachs & William Collier  / Tim & Lauren Schrager

We are grateful for the following organizations as our collaborating partners for the project: Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Atlanta, Asian American Advocacy Fund, Asian Student Alliance, Lawrenceville Arts Center, and Alliance Theatre.  Special thanks to Eastern Glass and Aluminum and University of Texas at Arlington, Art + Art History Department, Glass Area, Korean Image Archive.