REMEMBERING WATER'S WAY
October, 2018
Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, Philadelphia, PA
Part of the LandLab residency
Led by Cassie Meador, in collaboration with Christina Catanese, Elizabeth Johnson, Zeke Leonard, Marcie Mamura, Sarah Marks Mininsohn, Talia Mason, Jame McCray, and Kelly Mitchell
Culminating a year of research and art making at the Schuylkill Center, Dance Exchange led a series of animated hikes on our trails that connect participants to local ecology and reflect on the ways that water shapes our lives. These hour-long experiences wove together performance, installation, science engagements, and other opportunities, surfacing concerns and questions about the Schuylkill River and local waterways, and contributing to our understandings about the impacts of climate change on the region.
For the installation component of their work, sticks and invasive grasses were gathered locally and woven into fascines, which were placed in the landscape to redirect water and retain soil during increasingly frequent rain events. A fascine is a bundle of sticks used to protect land from erosion. These art installations were created in response to observing similar structures used by land stewardship staff on our property. The fascines were carried and installed as part of the performance and community walks in October 2018.
Catanese served as the curatorial and administrative lead for this project, and was invited by the artist team to participate as a performer.
