Remediate/ Re-Vision: Public Artists Engaging the Environment
January 23 - March 2, 2012
Remediate/Re-vision: Public Artists Engaging the Environment showcases artists’ projects in publicspaces where the work serves as a catalyst for environmental action. In settings as diverse as parks,water treatment facilities, waterfronts and city roofs, artists act as instigators, collaborators, activists anddesigners, raising awareness of such concerns as watershed fragility, industrial and natural history, personalresponsibility and ecological balance.
The featured artists are
Mags Harries and Lajos Heder, Terra Fugit, Miramar, Florida: An oasis within a regional park preserves marshland and interprets the area’s geologic and natural history.
Natalie Jeremijenko, NoPark, New York City, New York and elsewhere: Locally optimized, often playfulstrategies effect remediation of urban environmental systems by producing measurable evidence andencouraging effective change.
Patricia Johanson, Ellis Creek Water Recycling Facility, Petaluma, California: A series of ponds restorewetlands and wildlife habitats.
Lorna Jordan, Terraced Cascade, Scottsdale, Arizona: An environmental artwork and theatergarden allow harvested water to flow intermittently down the cascade, irrigating a mesquite bosquethat offers shade and respite from the desert sun.
Susan Leibovitz Steinman, Suzanne Lacy, and Yutaka Kobayashi, Beneath Land & Water–A Project forElkhorn City, Kentucky: A new "Blue Line Trail" walking trail includes a native flora/fauna park that absorbsstorm water run-off to clean it before it enters the river.
Matthew Mazzotta, Park Spark Project, Cambridge, Massachusetts: An interactive urban interventiontransforms dog waste into energy (methane) through a publicly fed methane digester.
George Trakas, Newton Creek Nature Walk, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York: Public access to a
long-inaccessible shoreline surrounding Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant reveals the social andnatural history of the site while facilitating its environmental revival and creating much needed park space.
Eve Mosher, Seeding the City, New York City, New York: Green roof modules combine with socialnetworking tools track the growth of these interventions, with online tools that include mapping the project,tracking local urban heat island effect and resources to recreate the project worldwide.
Amara Geffen, In Praise of Land and Water: Revisioning Stormwater on Federal Highways and RevitalizingShadybrook Park, Meadville, Pennsylvania: Both projects integrate land art and landscape design to addressstormwater mitigation and creative placemaking. Geffen also attracts youth engagement to transform sites viathe arts.
Jackie Brookner, “Veden Taika,” Salo, Finland: Three floating islands, built in the local water treatment plant’s lagoon, function as a nesting site for birds and contain plants chosen to remove pollutants and sediments from the water.
Presentation & Reception, Artists as Environmental Catalysts: in Context and in Community
January 30, 2012 , 4:45 – 6:00 P.M.
Presenters:
Jennifer McGregor, Director of Arts and a public art expert at Wave Hill, NY;
Amara Geffen, professor of art at Allegheny College and director of the College’s Arts & Environment Initiative and the College’s Center for Economic & Environmental Development
To learn more about the exhibit, view the Press Release
