Jack Waters: A Profile of a Queer Artist

JACK WATERS is recognized as a versatile artist, deeply involved in filmmaking, writing, digital media, choreography, and performance.

In the year 2014, his visual creations were showcased within the Visual AIDS exhibition titled "Ephemera As Evidence," held at La Mama Galleria. Prior to that, in 2013, his work was featured in "NOT OVER: 25 Years of Visual AIDS," also presented at La Galleria, alongside contributions to "Not only this, but &39;New language beckons us&39;" at Fales Library and Special Collections, NYU. An earlier exhibition opportunity arose in 2008, where he participated in a trio show known as "Triple Threat" at Frise, a gallery situated in Hamburg, Germany.

His cinematic piece, "Berlin New York," was broadcast during the November 2002 installment of the Sundance Channel's "Underground Shorts: Politics" programming block. In that same year, 2002, he and his life partner and creative collaborator, Peter Cramer, were highlighted in the premier episode of the PBS series "In The Life," specifically for their video installation project, "We Remember," which was displayed in the windows of NYC's Donnel Library.

His concise video work, "The Male Gayze," was featured during the February 1995 exhibition at the Whitney Museum Of American Art titled "The Black Male." The filmic output of Mr. Waters is currently undergoing preservation efforts undertaken by Visual AIDS's Estate Project for Artists With AIDS. Furthermore, Waters is the originator of an interactive digital artwork christened "Superschmoozio© The Game Of the International Art Market," a venture that received support through Franklin Furnace's Future of The Present residency program at the New School for Social Research.

In his capacity as a journalist, he has contributed articles covering a spectrum of subjects including politics, cultural matters, and critical analyses of visual arts, cinema, and various media forms. He played a pivotal role as one of the inaugural contributing writers for Color Life, a journal dedicated to news for people of Color identifying as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, and two-spirited, and also for LGNY, a New York City-based bi-weekly publication focused on LGBT news.

Cramer and Waters were instrumental catalysts for POOL, a dance and performance collective that emerged in the early 1980s. POOL delved into explorations of contact improvisation and other improvisational techniques, with a particular emphasis on integrating diverse theatrical modalities, ritualistic practices, activism, and group dynamics. Through these efforts, they generated performance pieces, choreographic works, and fleeting events presented not only in NYC but across the United States and on an international scale.

Among the esteemed collections that house the artistic creations of Mr. Waters are the NYC Library Of Performing Arts, The Film Makers' Cooperative, the NYC Public Library AIDS Activist Video Collection, and the archives of Allied Productions, Inc. This latter entity is a non-profit organization functioning as an arts umbrella, which Waters and Cramer jointly established and continue to administer. An oral history documenting the experiences of Waters and Cramer is accessible on the website and within the catalogue of the Smithsonian Institution, located in Washington D.C..

In the year 1979, Waters successfully completed his studies within the Dance Division of the prestigious Juilliard School.