In an industrial wharf on the banks of Boston Harbor, tucked inside the ICA Watershed, which used to function as a copper pipe and sheet metal factory, Lucy Raven explores the impact of industrialization on the environment and on us.

The setting couldn’t be more poignant, a reflection of a historic shipyard, once a bastion of industry, on a waterfront that is facing down the threat of climate change related erosion.

“‘Lucy Raven: Rounds’ invites visitors to consider the social and political impact of industrial progress and expansion through an immersive experience,” said Nora Burnett Abrams, the ICA’s Ellen Matilda Poss Director.

The installation features two large-scale sculptures, both kinetic and video, that sit at the nexus of photography, installation, film and drawing, a juggling act in which Raven is well versed.

“Murderers Bar” is a moving image installation, a film projected onto a massive, curved screen that confronts the viewer and creates a visual sense of the force of the rushing water depicted. The film follows a dam removal and river restoration project in northern California, beginning with the dynamite that removes the dam and then following the rushing flow of the river 200 miles out to the Pacific Ocean. From there, the film returns to the original site to document the changes to the landscape. A powerful soundtrack composed by Deantoni Parks accompanies the video.

The piece is part of a larger series titled “The Drumfire” that explores the radical impact of the United States’ reconstruction and deconstruction of the environment in the Western part of the country.

This is the U.S. debut of Raven’s 2025 installation “Hardpan,” the other piece in the show, which uses a rotating electronic arm to sweep light around a concrete and aluminum enclosure.

Depending on which way the arm moves, light flits in and out of the exhibition space through a small entry point.

The Watershed is free and open to the public. Visitors paying admission to the main ICA campus in the Seaport can also use the water taxi to the Watershed in East Boston.

The exhibition presents a look at the range of Raven’s work and the powerful sensory experiences it elicits. It takes art off the wall and engages the viewer directly in it.

“The artworks in ‘Rounds’ are united in the artist’s exploration of force, extreme speed and fluid dynamics,” said co-organizers Ruth Erickson and Meghan Clare Considine. “In ‘Murderers Bar,’ Raven uses a range of aerial and underwater imaging strategies, finding form in the material transformation of land and landscapes; and in ‘Hardpan,’ this visual experience is brought off the screen for visitors to physically experience.”

ON THE WEB

Learn more about the exhibition at icaboston.org/ica-watershed