Jenifer Wightman
science+art
East River - Week 10
East River - Week 10
East River - Week 10
East River - Week 10
Gowanus Canal Mud collection
Out collecting mud with the Gowanus Dredgers Club.
photo by Eymund Diegel
Gowanus Canal - Day 7
NYC Superfund Site
Gowanus Canal - Day 37
NYC Superfund Site
Portraits of NYC
15"x15"x2", 5 frames for 5 waterways
Steel, glass, silicone, eggs, newspaper, chalk and mud from each waterway (Gowanus Canal, East River, Deadhorse Bay, Hudson River, Newtown Creek)
Portraits of NYC, is a survey of the microbiology that inhabit NYC waterways.
For the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council residency on Governors Island (August-December 2012), I built 5 steel and glass frames to hold mud and water from polluted waterways to create evolving portraits of NYC. Each frame includes mud from one of the following: Hudson River (PCBs), Gowanus Canal (heavy metals), Deadhorse Bay (exposed landfill), East River (raw sewage), Newtown Creek (oil spill). Bacteria photosynthesize pigments and create a transforming colorfield as defined by the physical and chemical conditions of each water:mud sample. As one species exhausts its preferred resources and dies out, another species thrives on the waste products of its predecessor. Transition of color indicates ecological succession of microfauna colonizing New York City.
A Selection on view:
Bronx Museum Bienniel 1285 6th ave at 52nd St, NY NY, 8am-6pm through September 20, 2013
Sarah J. Christman's Gowanus Canal short that features my Gowanus mud painting has been selected for the Toronto International Film Festival, September 5-15, 2013
Other works with Mud
View, 2013
Transect, 2012
Winogradsky Rothko, 2004