bad water review: 4 perspectives that are so mixed they restore your faith in free thinking
Last Friday, Bad Water gallery hosted the opening of 4 possible endings that are so happy they make you cry, a solo show by Berlin-based artist Adrienne Herr.
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Upon arriving at the renovated backyard garage-gallery in the evening, visitors enter through a shadowy curtain into a space filled with sound from three audiovisual installations mounted on the walls. The installations feature recorded vocalizations—yells and yodels—emanating from speakers and illuminated mouths displayed on screens: one on the left wall and two on the wall opposite the entrance. Herr's work combines these irrational vocal improvisations into a sound collage, which is then translated into a musical score that is also exhibited in the gallery.
The final composition seemingly entranced some viewers and alienated others, as attendees had the opportunity to mingle before Herr took center stage for a live performance of four other musical utterances: Fictional; Pale Blue Dot Drowning; 3 Meaningless Words; and Laughter. Reaction after this performance was mixed as well—just as much as it provoked authentic discussion amongst the crowd.
Read on for 4 perspectives that are so mixed they restore your faith in free thinking.
Sean Burke
I would venture to say that no two people present had the same reaction to Adrienne Herr’s show 4 possible endings that are so happy they make you cry and her subsequent performance of 4 works for solo voice. But that is what made it so enthralling. Confusion, frustration, disillusion — excitement, understanding, satisfaction: these all could coexist in the afterglow of Herr’s performance. Herr’s performance was markedly approachable. She cycled through vocal tones with intention and intensity, leading the audience through a rollercoaster of sounds, words, and emotions. Skating between laughter, grief, desire, sorrow, fear, and excitement in the course of a few minutes captured my attention for what would come next. Adrienne Herr’s performance was so captivating that over the course of 20 minutes I was convinced of the importance and power of sound poetry.
Eric Thompson
It was rhythmic such that I could nearly tap a foot to it, yet hypnotic. I felt my mind drifting until a certain phrase was uttered, which racked my attention, but I soon forgot the phrase. It was courageous in its performance. I felt the phrases stripped of their meanings & reduced to their syllables or letters — mere sounds. It was elusive enough to drive conversation attempting at deciphering but hinted at enough that we found meanings scattered about its phrases.
Anonymous Contributor
Combatting capitalist hegemony comes in many forms, but spewing random words and buzzwords, e.g., fascism, greed, money, love, fever, talk, horses, chicken, etc., in a fashion that would be offensive to those with a stutter does nothing to combat it, let alone inform the viewers on the disjointed — if at all there — message. Clumsily speaking broken-up buzzwords in a myriad of pitches and the occasional valley girl accent may stimulate the brain, but that is all it does. It does not elicit imagery or inspire the imagination; rather, it shows itself as a pseudo-intellectual, incoherent buzz tied up in a faux-activist knot.
Simply because something is different or opposes that which is generally accepted as art by everyday man does not imply that it is inherently profound or, at the very least, good. The argument for subjectivity in art should not suggest that all things done in its name are deserving of praise. That isn’t to say that all art can be classified as objectively good or bad, rather, it is to say that radical acceptance (a liberal practice) of all art does us no good. Critiques exist for a reason.
Sophia Wright
My initial reaction to Herr’s installation was marked by apathy and boredom more than any visceral aversion. This indifference shifted towards ambivalence during Herr’s performance. While I found the installation to be rather inaccessible, the liminality and impermanence of her live compositions had an entirely different effect. There was a reciprocality between the performer and the audience, whether that be the laughter elicited during Herr’s own forced hysteria, the hesitance of our applause when we were unsure if the act had concluded, or the dogs barking a few yards over as if in conversation with Herr’s own growls, grunts, and howls. What emerged through this live element was a more genuine connection that the static installation lacked. Herr's physical presence — her vulnerability as she contorted her voice and body — created moments of unexpected intimacy amid the experimental chaos.
This distinction raises questions about the nature of performance art itself: when does documentation become mere artifact, and when does it retain the vitality of the original? Herr's installation alone fails to capture the ephemeral quality of her live work, suggesting that perhaps the gallery setting inadvertently sanitizes what is meant to be raw and immediate. The exhibition ultimately succeeds not through its permanent elements but through those fleeting moments of connection — moments that resist being mounted on gallery walls or neatly packaged into a cohesive artistic statement.
Adrienne Herr is an artist working within cross-disciplines of sound, text, installation, and performance. Language and the languages of performative contexts are treated poetically in her work to reframe our notion of materiality. The singular voice is rendered multiple in a translation across diverse forms to diverge from language-based sense making. She is the author of two books, ALL THE ANIMALS ARE BAD AND NOBODY WANTS TO RIDE THEM OR BUY ANY OF THEIR FLOWERS (2023), and Other problems involving three bodies (2024).
4 possible endings that are so happy they make you cry by Adrienne Herr will be exhibited March 14–April 5, 2025 at Bad Water, 320 E. Churchwell Ave, Knoxville. Gallery is open by appointment.
