HighWaterLine

Obstacles and examples

As if to prove a point, the HWL project got completely rained out on Sunday. It was to be a short but powerful day of chalking. I was going North from Battery Park past the World Trade Center site to Chamber Street. (Getting to pass by the green building, 7 World Trade Center, on the way).

I expected it to be a somber day, I am still powerfully affected by being around the WTC site. The contrast and similarities between imminent danger (terrorism) and future danger (climate change) would have been interesting. I will write more about that when I actually get to draw the line up to the site… (The line goes through the center of the site).

I met up with a journalist from The Discovery Channel. We were to bike over the bridge to the west side to start drawing the line. Unfortunately the bike she was going to borrow had a flat tire, so in honor of our French cameraman, I let her ride on the front of the tricycle most of the way. On the flats and downhills it was not a bad deal, although at one point she was taping and asking me questions and I got completely winded because I was talking and pedaling pretty hard. It was quite a laugh that I was ferrying her around on the trike. We certainly got a lot of looks, and when we got into the city we got some honks and rude driver attitudes.

We got down to where we were going to start chalking and were waiting for my filmmaker, Justin, when the sky opened up. The weather had forecast rain in the early afternoon and then clearing for a few hours, I was thinking we could get some chalking in between the rains. Unfortunately it just kept coming down. We waited around for a couple of hours and finally decided we should just postpone (I will tack it on to the beginning of the 8/11-8/12 weekend). Justin asked me to talk a little bit about what was happening on camera. I explained that process of getting ready and the disappointment (after mentally and physically preparing for a big day) of not getting to do the line. I didn’t fully realize the impact until I started talking about it - and I almost cried! Seriously, I don’t think it was that big a deal, since I would still get to draw the line, but I was really really tired, and I guess I had really put myself in a certain frame of mind.

Anyway, it has been postponed, I waited out the rain and then biked the whole kit and kaboodle back over the bridge (lifting the filled chalker onto the trike is damn near impossible by the way) and put it back in the studio to go out again in a couple of weeks.

Speaking of global issues

Saturday was an exciting day for the HWL project. After drawing the chalk line through the financial district, I was going to spend the day not walking and talking, but pretty much staying in one place and meeting the people passing through.

I was up early to load up the ZipCar with all of the beacons and equipment to install the illuminated beacons in Battery Park. After a number of people said I wouldn’t get a permit to install in the park, I got enthusiastic support from the Battery Park Conservancy and City Councilman Gerson’s office and was able to install the beacons and chalk the line through the park. (It’s a good thing too, since I was indeed asked for permit proof for the first time in the project).

I installed around 40 beacons from the Greenwich Street entrance down almost to the water. I chalked from the East entrance of the park all the way to the water and then back along to Greenwich Street, chalking in between the beacons.

This line was interesting in some of the things that lay below it. Not only was Clinton Castle on the other side of the line, but also the Staten Island Ferry Building, the Governor’s Island Ferry Building, the Whitehall Street subway station and the Battery Tunnel - that’s a lot of transportation infrastructure.

After setting up the beacons, filling them with water and capping them off, I did the chalking with the assistance of my friends Sky and Margo. We spoke to some ladies visiting New York from Wisconsin and Florida, a couple from Long Island who had brought some friends to the Statue of Liberty, and a gentleman from India who was visiting on business.

He was very interested in the project because he felt that Americans were very much talking about environmental issues in comparison with India. He said that despite the severe weather events which they have faced, and the potential massive devastation that could occur with climate change, there was not a public discussion around environmental issues. Instead the entire country was obsessed with growth, development and acquisition of wealth. It’s too bad that developing countries don’t look at America and instead of thinking “we want all that” think maybe, we want more, but we want it in a better less devastating way.

As the day wore on, the crowds in the park ebbed, and as the sun was setting the TF1 crew came out again to see the beacons in the park. I went along the line of beacons and lit all of the led’s at the bases.

The beacons lit into a glowing blue line of light. I have to admit, I was stunned with the beauty of them. It was such an interesting contrast with the rest of the project - most of the chalking is noisy, interactive, always moving. The beacons are quiet, still and contemplative. The few people left in the park were enjoying the serenity of the beacons in the park. A gentleman from New Jersey who was on a bike ride, stayed in the park for an hour or so and enjoyed walking around and photographing the beacons. I also got to talk to a local resident for some time who really liked the installation in the park and appreciated the site-specificity of the work and the message which it brought to a diverse crowd of people visiting the park.

I really enjoyed watching the transition of the park over the day. Early in the morning I spoke with a man who fishes off the walkway on the water and a man who has been feeding the squirrels for years, and all the squirrels come to sit on and around him. Then the vendors started setting up and the Statue of Liberty guys came in and got on their costumes - they are all short large men in those outfits! Then the crowds started coming in and the buskers showed up. There is an amazing amount of cooperation between the various factions that operate down there - it is all very professional and friendly - they help each other out, take turns entertaining or taking breaks, etc. As the day drew to a close, the tourists disappeared, a truck showed up and took away all the vendor carts and the illegal bag salesmen filed in. Then it all emptied out and the locals were able to enjoy the peace and quiet of a beautiful waterfront park. It was a long day, but endlessly fascinating.

Sorry about the fuzzy beacon images, both Jose & I didn’t think to bring a tripod!

Can you spare five minutes for the environment?

One of my favorite things that has been written about the project was written by Andy Goodman, of “good ideas for good causes.” He talks about the people on the street pleading for you to stop and give some time (and money) regarding any number of good causes, and then says “In one of America’s busiest cities, Mosher isn’t stopping people to talk about global warming. They’re stopping her.”

I put that to the test in Lower Manhattan this weekend.

I had myself sort of psyched up for the chalking from Brooklyn Bridge to Chambers street,where I would pass by South Street Seaport, Wall Street, through Battery Park and then past the World Trade Center site. I had in my mind that it would be a really different weekend, it would be the first really business heavy area, the first big tourist area, the WTC site, and the area with the highest security. All of that certainly made for an exciting weekend, but there is more. Let me tell you about it…

Friday I biked from home to the Canary Project studio, arriving at about 9:15am. I was met by a cameraman and sound guy from TF1, French news television. They were to follow me around for the day. They shot some stuff of me checking out the maps and loading up the trike (chalker, 50 pound bucket of chalk, misc locks, camera, my bag) and took some shots of Ed and I heading out. We rode to the gas station so that I could put some air in the chalker’s tires (it’s called the heavy hitter and it’s tires deflate bi-weekly). Then on the road again.

A little ways on the TF1 guys stopped me because they wanted to try a different shot. The cameraman wanted to ride on the front of the trike and film me while I pedaled along. I’m sorry, you want to do what? He wanted to sit on the heavy hitter and face me (with an enormous camera) and ride along. I, um, well I don’t know. He protested that he didn’t weigh much and it wouldn’t be for long, could we just try it out? Keep in mind that I am already pedaling about 100 pounds of weight on the trike, which is a single speed (no gears) with cruiser brakes (pedal brakes) and some super bouncy shocks (I feel everything).

Reluctantly I agreed - concerned more for his safety than for my ability to pedal it - so on he popped and off we went. Turns out the ol’ trike can make the weight not feel so bad. It was a little awkward to have to look around the huge camera in front of me, but all in all a pretty fun experience. At the end of the block the cameraman jumped off and off Ed and I went for the Brooklyn Bridge.

It can be a pretty slow slog up the long ramp on the bridge (although Ed said I “booked it” but I think that is a relative term - “booked it” compared to expectations not other bike speeds). The first couple of times that I rode over the bridge, I had to walk part of the way. Now I can make the whole ride up - not that it is easy or fast by any means. I get quite a lot of looks along the way as I pedal the trike across the bridge. Most in sheer wonderment - I don’t know if the looks are for the tricycle or for the chalker on the front (might be both). The bikers on the bridge are an interesting story too - I get about half that are totally wowed by the trike and think it is a hell of a thing, and about half who seem more annoyed than anything (I am after all like an SUV in the bike lane).

Ed and I met the TF1 guys at the Manhattan side archway on the bridge. First we did a shot of me riding down past the cameraman, then I had to ride back up again and down one more time since the sound guy was in the first shot. They were apologetic about making me ride uphill again, but at least it wasn’t a steep part, and I explained it wasn’t a big deal since I did this ride pretty frequently lately.

Then the cameraman again requested to ride on the front. I knew it would change the braking dynamics, but was willing to give it a try. Up again, perched on the chalker and off we went for the long downhill ride. Wasn’t too bad except for the crowds of tourists (which can make unexpected swerves and movements on the bridge) the swing of the heavy camera when he panned (the front of the bike can be squirelly) and the soreness in my leg from holding the brakes on…We looked a little like a super budget film crew or something.

At the base of the bridge the cameraman hopped off and we went on our ways (I have to take sometimes a much more circuitous route) to meet up again at Water Street and the south side of the Brooklyn Bridge. There we were also joined by Jose, who is doing some documenting of the project, and we had Megan from Canary Project, who met us on the bridge when Ed had to leave. I unloaded everything and locked up the trike, filled the hopper of the chalker with the 50 pounds of chalk, walked over to the bridge wall and started putting down the line.

It was pretty quiet on the north end of South Street Seaport, was able to just go along quietly chalking on the cobblestones. At the plaza where Fulton, Pearl and Water come together we started to see a lot more crowds - mixed bag of tourists and business people. And a traffic cop that I skirted around on my way across the busy plaza.

I wound my way through the forest of skyscrapers, marking chalk lines past construction sites and lines of hungry business people waiting in line for their lunch. While I got a few curious glances, most people were rushing to or from their lunch break. A few security guards gave some harsh words - not to me but to the people documenting - warnings about photographing the buildings. About halfway through and still no people interested in talking about what I am doing (what a contrast from the Brooklyn neighborhoods!)

The TF1 guys found someone who was asking about the project and corralled him over to talk to me about it. A block later and a young woman asked “What are you doing?” I came over to tell her about it, but when the cameras got close she shied away saying “I don’t want to be on camera I was just being nosy!” But she let them film as I explained the project and handed her and her workmate some Action Packets.

I talked to a number of the street vendors, they had more time to spend talking and asking questions. Most of them were from outside the area - one from Jersey, a couple from Queens - and they were interested in the larger impact of climate change and talked about their own experiences with flooding and storms and the changes they had notice climatically in their own areas. We finished the day chalking right up to the edge of Battery Park, where I would continue (on the other side of the construction) on Saturday.

More images of the bike ride coming soon from Canary Project…

This is your city on climate change - any questions?

Sunday was the day to travel to the Brooklyn Bridge. I went right up to the bridge too. Below the line on the East side, from 14th to Brooklyn Bridge lay the FDR drive, a waste transfer station, a huge power station, a lot of river front parks, and of most concern, innumerable New York City Housing Authority complexes. Within these houses live (from what I saw) an incredible diverse and vibrant community. I have been working with Deborah Balk who is researching the impacts of climate change on coastal communities by looking at census data. She is investigating the economic, ethnic and ages of those along the coast. One of the fascinating aspects is how much NYC is a microcosm of the world. While in the US much of our coastal property is highly sought after and high value, in many parts of the world it is where the very poorest in the community live.

In the afternoon I was lucky enough to sit on a panel at CitySol with some of the fantastic artists who had done installations for the event (mine was the “offsite project”). The artists were The 62, Situ Studio, The Canary Project, Natalie Jeremijenko and Kate Zidar. We had the opportunity to discuss the power that art has in motivating awareness or action around climate change. We talked about the power of the visual message and the importance of engaging and empowering people. One thing that was brought up by Natalie was how artists can portray themselves within the discussion about climate change and how they are most useful. Her point (my interpretation of it) is that they are most valuale in raising questions. Not merely illustrating scientific data regarding climate change (which is in constant flux) but either acting as the questioner themselves (the artist) or providing the catalyst or tools for the viewer to ask questions.

Which got of to thinking about High Water Line (of course) and whether or not this was true for this project. Is it merely illustrating one potential climate scenario, or does it venture into the questioning role?

Perhaps the most obvious questions it raises are the most frequently echoed - what does this mean to me and what can I do about it? I think it also gets people to rethink their perception of climate change. Maybe to begin to look at and define their immediate environment in a different way. To reframe the global warming issue from a global one to a local one, with real, tangible actions.

Any other thoughts?

Evolution of ideas

I am sitting in Corlear’s Hook Park at Cherry Street and FDR Drive, waiting for the sun to go set. I did my first installation of the illuminated beacons for High Water Line, and am waiting to get some pictures of them after dusk. It seems as good a time as any to delve into the topic of the evolution of ideas. A number of people have asked how I went from the studio work investigating the relationship between built and natural environment to a community outreach project dealing with the specific issue of climate change.

When I look at the High Water Line project as a single, whole entity (the entire line, the beacons, the nature of the project), I see a seamless connection between it and my drawings, intervention installations, narrative works and my tendency towards obsessive. For some the connection isn’t so obvious. So my friend Michele and I broke it down into a specific narrative the other day (a lot of which you could get from reading this blog in a linear manner).

My work has gone through a number of phases (as would anyone’s of my tenure). The work previously being shown and developed was that which investigated the intersection between body and space. Or, to put it another way, humans and their environment (see the seed was already there). Last January, I wrote a blog entry about viewing a photo essay in Sierra Magazine about the shrinking glaciers. I was awed by the power of the visual message and I decided to make a conscious change in the direction of my work. About the same time, we had decided to move. As anyone familiar with the NYC real estate market knows, this can be an all-consuming task. So my studio practice was negatively affected. From that time until well after the move (my tiny studio at the new place was filled with boxes), my artistic practice was primarily that of drawing ideas in my sketchbook. These works were all explorations of specific environmental issues (deforestation, urban decay, migration, waste, genetics).

Alongside this, I was trying to come up with ways to get my work out and seen by more people (this didn’t have to be galleries). I realized the easiest and best way to do this was to put it out on the street and in the parks right out in front of them. Would be pretty hard to avoid that.
I played with a few ideas and pretty quickly landed on the idea of marking the sea level rise sculpturally. Hence the genesis of High Water Line (nee Sea Change).

So the original idea was to create sculptural elements that were fairly elaborate and could be installed permanently around the city. For reasons of funding, fabrication, maintenance, liability and science (that this wasn’t a concrete line), the idea quickly morphed into simple illuminated beacons installed in parks around the city, connected by a chalk line. (Sound familiar?)

It was in the process of writing about the project, for grant applications, that I began to better understand the project and all of the various aspects of it - performance, community, witness, etc.

Which leaves me here, waiting for the sunset, meditating on the project, and the relationship between humans and their environment.

(cross-posted on my blog ‘works in progress’)

Let’s just be real cool and act like nothing’s weird…

You know it is the stereotypical New York attitude of not noticing the things happening around you. Mostly I think that is a great NYC attribute, it helps so many of us live in a really dense crowded active place. You create your own little bubble and just keep on walking.

It prevented, I imagine, a lot of people from speaking to me today. It was certainly one of the busiest areas I have been in thus far. I also didn’t speak to that many people. I did have a good conversation where a gentleman translated the information into spanish for his workmates so they could understand what the project was about too. We will have to see how things change as I get into the more touristy areas.

One thing’s for sure - the tricycle is a big eyecatcher! (That and I need to do some fundrasing to hire a strong-legged person to drive it around for me, going over that bridge is a workout no mistake!)

Can’t write too much tonight, I am getting everything ready for the park installation tomorrow! I will be out in Corlear’s Hook Park in the afternoon and very early evening for the first of the sculptural installations,it is off Jackson and Cherry in the Lower East Side (just below Grand at the FDR) so come by and say hello.

All gone in a puff of smoke (or car emissions)

A number of people have asked me what I feel about the fact that the line is gone so quickly. Admittedly, mostly I am just fascinated by the changes that the line undergoes as traffic (cars, buses, foot, bike, strollers, etc) passes over it. As a car goes through it, a puff of chalk rises in the air, and the chalk splats into a star. The bigger the car, the bigger the puff of chalk and the larger the smear of the star. The car also gets marked with some blue on its tires. It’s always interesting to retrace the path of lines drawn throughout the day.

But sometimes, just every once in a while its kind of sad. I stood on the island in the middle of the 8 lane (yeh, 8 ) Ocean Parkway where it intersects with the Belt Parkway and watched as the cars rapidly deteriorated the line. And I thought about all the work that has gone into the project (the almost 11 months of planning) the long hours of writing grant applications, the physical aspects of moving the bags & buckets of chalk. The time spent mixing the pigment and chalk. The mapping of the line. And, then, in a puff it is gone. Most frequently erased by one of the very things which is the reason for its existence. That can be sad.

But that’s the kind of existence that any performance has, there are months or years of planning, writing, building, rehearsing, promoting, and it’s over in sometimes a matter of a few days. The exhilaration of the performance is the reward. And the impact on the audience is the lasting impression.

Bearing witness

Today, while out in Manhattan Beach and Brighton Beach I had a photographer from Canary Project, Curtis along with me. He spent the day climbing lightposts, dodging traffic and laying on the ground to document the project. As I drew the line in front of a tall nursing home building, Curtis asked “So the nursing home would be under water?”

“Yes,” I answered simply.

It really got me thinking about how this project is both about local in the city/community sense, but also truly local, as in that building, that house in Manhattan Beach, that home in Canarsie, and yes, that nursing home in Brighton Beach. Curtis also spent some time photographing the things that would be lost. The park next to the NYPD horse stables, the long row of enormous condominium buildings on Ocean Parkway, the pizzeria, the small row of houses, the community college.

I hope to work with a few different groups to get neighborhood youth out looking at where the line hits, and talking about the areas and places that are of importance to them or their neighborhood that would be lost.

There was the guy in Gerritsen Beach whose family grew up in and owned houses in the neighborhood dating back to his grandmother - in the worst case scenario, his own grandchildren wouldn’t have that opportunity. The gentleman who chose to spend the summer at his mother’s place in Manhattan Beach instead of his apartment in Bushwick, his children or grandchildren may not have that opportunity.

But this project is about hope and belief in our ability to change the course we are on. There is the guy whose meditation class is focusing in July on less consumption. The woman in Sheepshead who wanted to get involved in the community in order to raise awareness about flooding. The family on the way to the beach who remarked how by saving energy, they could save money.

The project, for me, is a little bit of a rollercoaster ride every day and every week. It has its highs and lows. Sometimes I am really tired of pushing against the wall of trying to get permits. But then I speak to someone at a school or organization and there are great ideas for interactive programming. And for every one person who is a skeptic or annoyed about the chalk on the street, there are the 10 or more that are so excited about the project and the information that they high five me on the curb, or call out to say hello as I ride my tricycle down the road. Sometimes I am utterly utterly exhausted by the end of the day, but as soon as I put down the next mornings first stripe of chalk or have a kid run up to ask “What are you doing?” I feel energized and ready to take on the days path.

So here I am, about halfway through Brooklyn (because the line is really twisty in the South I have covered about half the mileage of the project), and getting ready to do my 6 weeks in Manhattan. I get to look back at the stories that I have heard and the incredibly varied neighborhoods that I have seen, and the people I have met, and I feel really truly honored to be the one who is bearing witness. I hope that I can find a way to share the sights and stories from the project. I hope that I also am able to give something back to the communities through which I pass and to the people that I meet.