URBAN SEA

by: Melissa D’Agostino

Fairmount Water Works Museum

September 26th- 29th, with an Artist’s Reception on Thursday Evening 

URBAN SEA inspires conversation about the river’s historic role as a water mass and its future evolution based on the health of our watershed systems, visually highlighting phenomena such as the river’s ever changing edges and waterlines. Engineered to unfurl alongside the river between six of the historic pavilion columns, URBAN SEA will showcase 60 yards of silk organza fabric hand-dyed by the artist’s itajime technique of patterned vertical lines. D’Agostino’s sheer textile installation is designed to transform the pavilion and integrate with the natural environment, so throughout the day and evening, whether at a distance or up close, viewers will see the one of a kind patterned tapestries blowing with the breeze, creating the billowing waves of an URBAN SEA. To enhance the viewer’s personal experience of this four day pavilion installation, Melissa will be on site to engage in conversation about the river and to invite the audience to express their own thoughts of the experience at a poetry desk and drawing table. In addition, D’Agostino has collaborated with a local letterpress maker to develop a commemorative card for URBAN SEA featuring a poem and drawing by the artist, as a special gift for each viewer to remember and share their experience of the site-specific textile installation at the Fairmount Water Works Museum.

Artists’s Evening Reception & Interactive Experience:

Thursday, September 29th 4-7pm

*Special Reception Feature: On-site Letterpress printing of the URBAN SEA Commemorative Cards by Paper & Ax

Event Hours with the Artist:

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday 4-7pm

(In the tradition of outdoor land based art, this unique four day exhibit of URBAN SEA will be on view from sunrise to sunset.)

*Special daytime student and group tours with the artist and the museum are available upon request and by appointment, based on scheduling

*URBAN SEA is a free exhibit and open to the public

*URBAN SEA beautifully overlaps with Urban Island!

Fairmount Water Works | 640 Water Works Drive, Philadelphia, PA 19130

Letterpress Commemorative Card Collaboration with Paper & Ax