WoWHaus WaterFalls

WoWHaus Waterfalls by sTo Len and the WoW team 

A large scale printmaking installation created with debris picked up around Governors Island and water from the Buttermilk Channel. Inspired by a recurring dream of a flooded house, the scroll-like prints and long flowing fabrics fall out of the windows of Works On Water’s residency building. The prints themselves act as a visual language that decodes the familiar shapes of common trash that washes up on our shorelines well as the natural patterns that water creates while referencing the aesthetic signaling of squats and banner dropping.

Through Archives

Water contains the histories of human and more than human worlds.

sTo Len, Tôi đã thấy ( I Have Seen)

Week 4: sTo Len

sTo Len takes us on a scenic stream of consciousness walk through his neighborhood to his favorite waterfront off the beaten path: the Newtown Creek. Along the way are the ghosts of waters past, old trails, lots of memories, discarded gloves and a few masked friendly faces.

“The Newtown Creek is a special place to me and I wanted to take you all along on a video walk since we cannot do one in person. I think that we can learn a lot from the water that surrounds us, especially at a time when the pandemic has created such suffering and uncertainty, when our scheduled lives are so ephemeral and put on hold, when we must remain so still in our solitude. The water is there, its constantly moving and shaping the land. The water’s edge is blurring our hard edges. I go to the water for guidance. It shows us how to ebb and flow, a liquid GPS to better navigate the world as fluid dreamers, dancers, and survivors. It can teach us how to re-emerge into the world with one another as well. As public space has become completely transformed by the coronavirus, rediscovering the outdoors outside the box provides new opportunities for us to engage with the water and one another. Its time to reclaim new public commons beyond the ones predetermined by our patterned behavior. It's time to rediscover our waterfronts and find new ways to access our edges.”

Prompts to think about this week :

What body of water in NYC is closest to your home as well as to your heart?

Can you find access points to get to it’s edge?

Will you take us there through a photo, video, story, or song?

Mespeatches: a performance on the Newtown Creek

Sto Len offered an on-site performance and watery séance. From his boat, the artist asked the creek for forgiveness while creating a ceremonial print in its honor.

For the past two years, printmaker and performance artist Sto Len has been creating mono prints on Newtown Creek in Maspeth, Queens (which was originally called Mespeatches by the Native American tribe of the same name who lived in the area). Mespeatches translates to “at the bad water place.” Working en plein air from a rowboat, Sto uses a process similar to paper marbling to print directly off of the patches of oil and debris floating on the surface. The resulting works are both beautifully patterned and effectively troubling as they offer us a grim reflection of an environmental disaster many would rather ignore.