Photo by George Hirose
The weekend of July 13th saw the congregation of thousands of arts, music and clean energy enthusiasts along Manhattan’s East River. The festival was organized by Jenn Su, of Solar One, a “green energy, arts and education center,” located in Stuyvesant Cove Park, between 18th and 23rd streets. The event featured a solar and bio-diesel powered sound stage, fourteen art installations, and incentives to switch standard energy bills to wind power. Amongst the artists was Jasmine Zimmerman, currently featured at David Krut Projects New York, in the summer exhibition “HOMEGROWN” curated by Renee Riccardo. Passersby noticed something that looked like a sparkling igloo, and on closer inspection found what Jasmine calls the “Bottle House”— a dome structure made from discarded plastic water bottles. I was able to ask her some questions about her piece:
Kerry O’Connor: How did you hear about CitySol?
Jasmine Zimmerman: I was invited by one of the curators, Jenn Su, when I met her at one of my public participatory installations in Brooklyn in May.
KO: Is it fair to say you used thousands of bottles?
JZ: I definitely used THOUSANDS of bottles.
KO: What were some of the things you learned about bottled water usage?
JZ: This project was very educational: We spend more each year on bottled water than iPods. Aquafina and Dasani (Coke and Pepsi) are municipal water, but over 4,000 times the price of municipal water being in the bottle. The national average recycling rate is only 15%. Of that, only 4% of PET plastic (plastic bottles), are recycled into plastic bottles. Most of it is exported to Asia or recycled domestically into synthetic products (fabrics, etc.)
Municipal water is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency, with much tighter constraints than the US Food and Drug Administration’s governing of bottled water.
The mayor of San Fransisco just banned plastic bottled water (LINK)…Yay!
KO: Anything else? More bottle houses planned?
This is a project that I would like to take around the world to raise awareness and educate people on how they can use alternative materials. In particular, third world countries with no recycling facilities, but thousands of tourists who pollute the beaches with plastic bottles. It would require a government agency sponsorship. In Rio de Janeiro someone is living in a floating house made of recycled plastic bottles that will be used as a recycling model in a government anti-pollution campaign.
Stay tuned to www.jasminezimmerman.com for more details on upcoming projects. Hopefully we will see more from her soon as her project is both beautiful and relevant in highlighting the bottled water problem. It is a somewhat heroic piece; pitting itself against what is seemingly one of humanity’s most absurd sources of trash to date.
Following are pictures from Citysol 2007, July 12th - 15th:
Solar One
Citysol
More Pictures
Other Highlights from the Festival:
Edward Morris poses with his piece Albedo Cloud. Quoting from the
Citysol Festival website, “The Albedo Cloud is part of an ongoing
collaboration with fashion designer Jussara Lee and Orlando Palacios.
The Albedo Cloud is a site-specific installation, made here as one
cloud consisting of 550 white shirts. – Why 550 shirts? Because the
European Union is seeking to get on top of rising carbon emissions by
setting a stabilization target of 550 carbon parts per million (ppm)
in the atmosphere.”
Edward Morris also helped to co-found The Canary Project, a group
documenting climate change around the world.
Citysol
Canary Project
Old Goat Karts is a project created by “The 62″, a Brooklyn based arts collective. Their carts were handcrafted electric go carts, each with their own ingenious quirks. They were found zooming in and amongst the crowd throughout the weekend. www.the62.org *floating raft picture* Natalie Jeremijenko runs the New York University Environmental Health Clinic and pictured here is a project from the clinic, a mobile office. The raft is buoyed by old soda bottles and is seen here tethered in the East River.
www.the62.org
Natalie Jeremijenko runs the New York University Environmental Health Clinic and pictured here is a project from the clinic, a mobile office. The raft is buoyed by old soda bottles and is seen here tethered in the East River.
Good Magazine
Salon.com
–Kerry O’Conner. Kerry is an artist living and working in New York City.
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