CATERPILLASTROPHY 2024
The centerpiece of Caterpillastrophy was an 18-foot-long gutter that traverses the length of the gallery on an extensive set of found and fabricated legs—a visual approximation of a caterpillar, designed primarily for the movement and purification of the waters of the Hudson. Recruiting the audience and an adhoc collective of multidisciplinary participants, Straw Pipes slowly brought the water from the Hudson River across three city blocks to our set of water-based inventions, including (most prominently) the water filtration caterpillar.
The water was then moved from the Hudson first with a pulley and bucket temporarily installed along the river bulkhead. It was collected in 5 gallon containers on casters and moved little by little across the city sidewalks. Then, beginning just shy of the gallery entrance, the waters we collected from the Hudson, were poured from their 5-gallon containers into a prominent filtration-system made of salvaged materials. From there the water was trickle down our caterpillar pipe and then slowly make its way through the rest of the gallery, transforming as it goes.
The water was performing as visual artist, musician, and protagonist as it interacts with our reverse-engineered inventions—machines made of spools, bicycle wheels, containers, ropes, pipes, and various devices sourced from thrift stores or of the trash. In many cases the machines were made from objects we found on the waterfronts themselves—reuniting the waters that adjoined and enveloped them before this project began. By the time the water finishes its journey it will have moved through various states—from the dense polluted waters we collected directly from the Hudson, to cleaner debris-free water, to vapor, and then into a pure distilled water. It ironically reached this state only by moving through devices made of repurposed river refuse. The water has legs, it moves, it transforms. And the rest of the collective and audience move with it.
The water that makes it to the final stages of this process was served in tiny tea cups - clean, clear, free of toxins, and (if our inventions work as planned) drinkable - a marked contrast from the initial gallons of murky, polluted water we initially pulled from the Hudson. Performing alongside the water, Straw Pipes served as hosts, researchers, spiritual guides, and bartenders.
The installation has multiple stations.
a. An overhead projector projecting the process of frozen Hudson River water melting, and the sound of melting is amplified during the exhibition.
b. “The Rights of Speakers” - In collabration with filmmaker Nate Dorr, who was making a film linking water chemistry and photochemistry in the post-industrial wilds in New York and New Jersey area at the time, the 16mm film strip was “developed” (polluted) by Newtown Creek water. The water gruadually turned into light purple during the period of the exhibition.
c. The Water Closet . A water closet displays objects I collected around water.