Where do we find the wild water of our neighborhoods? Climbing over guardrails to reach drainage pipes, leaning over bridges to scoop up a bucket full. We touch each of the waters before it becomes part of a silvery map.
Schuylkill Collected
Works on Water 2025 Triennial Exhibition, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Art Gallery, Governors Island, NYC
Curated by Emily Blumenfeld and Kendal Henry
Featuring artwork by Nora Almeida / iki nakagawa, Frank Bloem, Monica Jahan Bose, Donald Hài Phú Daedalus, Jeremy Dennis, Sherese Frances, Jana Harper, Perrin Ireland, Art Jones, Marie Lorenz, sTo Len, Stacy Levy, Mare Liberum, Mary Mattingly, Wes Modes, Lize Mogel, Eve Mosher, Nancy Nowacek, Jean Shin, Sarah Cameron Sunde, Sunk Shore (Carolyn Hall and Clarinda Mac Low), Elizabeth Velazquez, and Marina Zurkow.
Materials
Glass vials, river and stream water
Dimensions
18' high x 12' wide x 1" deep. Over 500 vials
Schuylkill Collected features collected waters from the tributaries of Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River, which were poured in vials and placed on the wall in a living water map.
We visited the tributaries and collected water from each waterway, bringing carefully labeled buckets back to the studio to fill hundreds of small glass vials. The vials were arranged on the wall to make a living map with the respective waters from each tributary.
These waterways are like capillaries across the land, carrying water from sky to sea. The same branching pattern as our blood vessels, the watershed carries the life blood of our planet. Today, we know our roads far better than our waterways. By not knowing where the water flows, we fail to protect it.