Peggy Nichols
- Jul 13, 2021
- 3 min read

Amy Kaczur, a video artist fueled by a sense of urgency in her work...

A Boston-based artist, producing video art for projection, installation and online, Amy Kaczur has lived and worked extensively in Boston, Cambridge, Long Beach and Los Angeles. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally, and she has participated in residency programs in California, Colorado, and New York. She is a member of Kingston Gallery Associates, Boston.

Kaczur’s work is grounded in environmental concerns, community and language. The latest projects are fueled by a sense of urgency related to water issues, specifically coastal flood zones and rising sea levels. She grew up outside Cleveland, with family ties working in farming, food industry, mills, and coal mines in rural Southern Ohio to the edges of Appalachia. Those roots impacted her experience of landscape and environmental issues, and the multilayered struggles between land use and conservation.

Along with examining these issues in her art practice, she works at Massachusetts Institute of Technology as the group administrator for two research labs focused on air and water pollution, climate change, and clean energy development and storage. She continuously develops her art practice, supported by relentless research, discovery by experiment, and the pleasure of inquisitive searching.

She holds an MFA from University of California, Irvine, and a BFA from Tufts University.

'Messages from the Marsh' ~ part 1, Video still (size variable) 2021

Link to Vimeo video, continuous loop, no audio (3min)

'Messages from the Marsh' ~ part 2, Video still (size variable) 2021

Link to Vimeo video, continuous loop, no audio (3min)

'Messages from the Marsh' ~ part 3, Video still (size variable) 2021

Link to Vimeo video, continuous loop, no audio (3min)

'Messages from the Marsh', Driftway ~ Conservation Park, Scituate, Massachusetts, archival pigment print, 20 x 30 inches 2020

'Messages from the Marsh', Bound Brook Pond, Norwell, Massachusetts

archival pigment print, 18 x 24 inches, 2020

The “Messages from the Marsh” project is developed via site-specific research, video documentation, and in-person engagement. Three videos are being shown encased in small Infinite Objects without audio in the Associate’s show Space Between at Kingston Gallery, Boston, and reflect on immersion of spaces inhabited, spaces transformed, and spaces lost. The water’s skin, the separation of the realms of water and air, are explored through underwater and over water imaging. Each piece works in relationship with each other to suggest a fuller, interconnected and dynamic rhythm with resonant impact across their spaces.

This work focuses on coastal marsh locations on the east coast, areas that are projected to be lost under water by 2050 through combinations of sea level rise, tides, and storm surge. I’ll continue to video above and within the marsh water bodies, and also create topographical maps of the marshes. The maps will be made with site-specific sediment and watermarking to be displayed along with the video. Community engagement and interviewing local residents for personal stories, their relationship with the marshes and the potential loss of these areas to ocean reclamation and salt marsh ecosystem collapse, is also an important discovery. Exploring Indigenous history is vital, along with researching the impact of the coastal marsh loss on the ecosystem and probable species extinction, and efforts in preservation and management.

Coastal marsh areas considered for the continued project, with travel permitting:

Scituate, Conservation Park, Marshfield, Duxbury, North and South Rivers Basin
Ipswich, Plum Island reserve, Mass Audubon's Rough Meadows Wildlife Sanctuary, Parker River National Wildlife Refuge
Truro, Pamet & Salt Marsh, Sandwich, Sandy Neck Beach Great Marshes
Savannah, Savannah National Wildlife Refuge
NC Outer Banks, Alligator River reserve, Currituck Outer Banks, Shackleford Banks, Rachel Carson Reserve on Carrot Island Crystal Coast, Cedar Island National Wildlife Refuge
Ogunquit, Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve
New York/Lower Manhattan, Long Island South Bay
Delaware, Black Water National Refuge
Miami, Everglades National Park, Florida Keys