WATERMARK
PROJECT
A collaboration with Vaughn Bell and Nicole
Kistler
Watermark was a series of
performances and
installations about the potential
impacts of climate change in Seattle.
The Watermark actions marked the "new"
Seattle waterfront that would be created in
the case of a 20 foot sea level rise
(as would happen if either the Greenland or
Antarctic Ice sheets were to melt).
Participants walked along this waterline
(the red line in the aerial photo of
downtown seattle on the right), marking it
with ephemeral materials such as seeds or
melting blocks of ice. The walk was a
meditation and a demonstration on the need
for action locally, nationally, and globally
to stem the tide of climate change.
The project was launched on April 14, 2007
as part of Stepitup2007 actions,
and repeated on Earth Day a week later.
It continued
as part of the show
"Groundtruthing" at SOIL Art Gallery in
August 2007, and was featured in EPA:
Environmental Performance Actions
at Exit Art in NYC in 2008.
Read more
about Watermark at our project
website: www.watermarkseattle.org
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more images below
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Graphic
by Sarah Kavage. Map support &
shoreline research from Brennon Staley. |
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Photos from the first
Watermark action. Participants used
sunflower seeds (fish friendly, degradable
& edible) to mark where the downtown
waterfront would be in the case of a 20-foot
sea level rise. Photos by Robert
Zverina. |
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The
photo at left is from a tour through the
industrial district south of downtown (which
would be dramatically affected by rising sea
levels), using melting blocks of ice to mark
the pavement. Photo by Darby Ringer. |
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For the show at SOIL, we
made postcards using photosimulations of
places in Seattle that would be submerged in
the case of a 20-foot sea level rise from
climate change. The image at left is of the
Olympic Sculpture Park (photosimulation by
Nicole Kistler).
Thanks to all the Watermark participants,
Brennon Staley for mapping and gladhanding
during the actions, and Robert Zverina for
photo/video support.
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