Escaped Infrastructure
Escaped Infrastructure was a temporary sculptural installation along the Manayunk Canal that explored the quality of water in this overlooked resource, in hopes of calling attention to the need for investment in canal improvements. Bressi, working as a curatorial advisor to Mural Arts Philadelphia, led the selection of artist Thoughtbarn and helped coordinate the installation.
Date | 2012
Artist | Thoughtbarn
Client | Mural Arts Philadelphia
Collaborators | Manayunk Development Corporation
Manayunk is a historic waterfront neighborhood in Northwest Philadelphia. Its waterfront mills have long been converted into new uses, its historic canal and towpath have been repurposed for rowing and bicycling, and the Main Street now thrives as a design- and entertainment-oriented commercial corridor that attracts visitors from throughout the region.
Manayunk’s business leaders retained the Mural Arts Program to coordinate a multi-year art initiative to help bring new attention to the district. Bressi, as a consulting project manager, developed an overall strategy by scouring the neighborhood for opportunity sites and prioritizing them with the business district leadership.
One site was the Manayunk Canal, a beloved public space that was struggling because of poor water quality. At a key location – a plaza that connects the canal to Manayunk’s Main Street – Bressi commissioned the Austin-based collaborative
Thoughtbarn to create an artwork that examined water quality issues. Thoughtbarn’s installation, Escaped Infrastructure, pumped water out of the canal and through a braid of translucent tubes, then returned it to the canal. The pump was activated by motion sensors, a way of capturing the public’s attention to the water action. Over the course of several months, the polluted water left a residue that clouded the inside of the tubes.
The project was recognized by the Public Art Network’s Year in Review.