In the funding world, Creative Placemaking is trending. But in the art world, “placemaking” itself is a problematic term because it can also refer to development. This conversation points us toward three terms: place making, place taking, and place keeping. Which one is at work in any given context? Who is doing the making, what is the motivation? As we consider placemaking in collaboration with the waterways other questions come up as well: what’s worth keeping, what’s worth changing, what’s worth making anew? How does our work intersect with both environmental and economic justice?
Works on Water is a month-long, multi-disciplinary triennial that presents multiple artistic and theatrical perspectives on water in a global context. The Works on Water exhibition is anchored by artists who make work with water as site or material. Additional artists include Torkwase Dyson, Floating Studios for Dark Ecologies (Marina Zurkow, with Nicholas Hubbard and Rebecca Lieberman), Marie Lorenz, Mare Liberium, Mary Mattingly, Eve Mosher, Nancy Nowacek, Sarah Cameron Sunde and TRYST (Clarinda Mac Low, Carolyn Hall and Paul Benney), many of whom are defining the field through longtime commitments to New York City waterways and urban ecology.
Artists who work with water are responding to the urgency of a changing climate, increasing urban density and a burgeoning public awareness of ecological concerns. Their works, made in, on or in direct response to the water connect to current economic, political and global issues, and reference Land Art, Public Art, and Performance Art. The cross-disciplinary nature of this event is intended to spark dialogue about the various approaches of visual and performing arts, environmental and social sciences and urban planning to engaging with the water on an individual, community, and global scale.
The exhibition is produced by Emily Blumenfeld, and the exhibition space is design by Louisa Thompson.
