Burns Maxey’s installation at 1 Cottage Street Room 1-06 explores dreams, history, and the waterways of Easthampton in a surreal setting of audio, video, and sculpture. In one room, rich shades of blue create an immersive aquatic environment containing life-size blue beds that have bulbous mattresses evocative a pregnancy or obesity.  Blue headphones are distributed throughout the installation for listeners to hear audio recordings telling the dreams of three Easthampton women. These dreams were collected by Maxey and then recited by Easthampton waterways to capture field recordings that immerse the listener simultaneously in the dreams and the streams, millponds, and rivers of the city. Other headphones contain the musical score for a richly ethereal video that guides the viewer through a series of dream sequences that reference historical figures of Easthampton, waterways, and surreal narratives. The lush instrumental score was created in collaboration with Timecard, an experimental pop band based in Amherst.  

The second more intimate room has a video and audio installation that’s focal point are audio clips from Patty Gambarini’s documentary, Reflections of the Lower Mill Pond. The audio recounts one couple’s story of their relationship with the Lower Mill pond during the height of Easthampton’s mill era.

In conjunction with the Cottage Street installation, the Easthampton City Arts gallery will feature video stills, objects, sculptures, and collages that relate to water and the installation. Included in this exhibition will be a horned head, the three books of dreams, and collages about the flood of 1955.