ADVANCED REGISTRATION RECOMMENDED
This Salon-Style program invites artists working with themes of water to share their in-progress work for feedback and discussion with the Eco-Social Salon, Site-Seeing, and Screening Series audience which is an event series and learning community that convenes irregularly where ecologically-themed artwork is presented and excursions taken.Confirmed Presenters Include: Sebastien Derenoncourt, Lori Waselchuk, David Scott Kessler, + Waterway Arts Initiative representatives Kaitlin Pomerantz, Ryan Greenberg + collaborators.
Image: Causeway, 2006, by Lori Waselchuk
Confirmed Presenters Include:
Sébastien Derenoncourt is a Haitian interdisciplinary artist who has been living and working in the U.S. for most of his adult life. During his childhood spent in Haiti and West Africa, he witnessed famines caused by the effects of soil erosion and degradation, desertification, severe droughts and coastal erosion. This lived experience has given him an intimate awareness of the effects of manmade climate change and environmental issues, which he brings to his conceptual work. His artistic practice is heavily research-based, and typically anchored in time arts practices such as video, sound and interactive media. He has also had an extensive career in commercial art and professional design; as an art director, creative director and user experience designer. Recently he has been studying the ramification of sea level rise and coastal erosion on the disappearance of historically, archeologically and culturally significant artifacts and geographies of the pre-colonial and colonial Atlantic coast of the United States; specifically the coastal wetlands and swamps which harbored marooned slaves and indigenous peoples.
Lori Waselchuk is a documentary photographer whose work is a simultaneous inquiry into the lived experiences of human beings and the systems we inhabit, contest, and construct. Her work is published and exhibited internationally. She is a documentary photographer whose works have appeared in national and international exhibitions and publications. Waselchuk also curates and coordinates projects that prioritize creative engagement and social change, including the Women's Mobile Museum, co-created with South African Photographer Zanele Muholi, and Grace Before Dying, a collaboration with incarcerated hospice caregivers at the Louisiana State Penitentiary. Waselchuk is a recipient of numerous honors for her work including an Aaron Siskind Foundation Individual Photography Fellowship, a Pew Fellowship for the Arts, and a Leeway Foundation Transformation Award.
David Scott Kessler is a visual artist and filmmaker in Philadelphia, PA. He brings his fascination with a sense of place to documentary film, 3D animation, painting, and video installation that explores memory, folklore, and the natural world. Characterized by stillness and hidden moments of magic, his work exudes a curiosity about material, form, and technology as storytelling tools. His feature-length documentary The Pine Barrens, which spans a decade of exploration in New Jersey's most fascinating and mysterious region, utilized performance and site-specific works to delve into understanding place beyond the limitations of traditional documentation. David is a Pew Center for Arts and Heritage and Flaherty Film Fellow. In 2016, he founded the arts and music event Middle of Nowhere, where he served as curator and producer.
Paper Buck is a Philadelphia-based visual artist, printmaker, and writer. His recent work is focused on land and place-centered research that critically explores white settler constructions of conservation, ecology, and the "American Landscape." His practice is informed by a background in community organizing that centers anti-racist education, decolonial social movements, and transgender justice.
The 2024 Waterway Arts Initiative (represented by Kaitlin Pomerantz & Ryan Strand Greenberg) is a joint partnership between the Philadelphia Water Department, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, and Mural Arts Philadelphia seeking to foster environmental discourse, empower community resilience, and share information and resources about critical flooding issues facing Philadelphia communities. With a central focus on community engagement, the initiative brings together an alliance of residents, artists, and scientists to investigate flooding in Germantown, utilizing multidisciplinary research, community science, and creative storytelling. The coalition includes Germantown residents, local artists, and Academy scientists. Each member brings a critical perspective to the project, from data science and installation art to firsthand experience with flooding in the neighborhood. Read more here: https://water.phila.gov/drops/waterway-arts-initiative-germantown/
