Clean Water Action is having a press conference at Noon on Wednesday, November 2nd to push the Board of Health to take action on a strengthening and updating of the rules they use to permit toxic emissions. The current rules were written when Reagan was still in the White House and the space shuttle program was brand new. Both of those are gone now but we still use the same rules. We now know much more about the bad effects of toxic emissions and our rules need to reflect that. Many jobs in the “new economy” won’t move here because our air is so bad. We need clean air for the economy that we want. (bump)
A couple of weeks ago I attended Doug Shield’s meeting with the people he represents, ALCOSAN staff members, a PGH public works staff member and one person from the PGH Water and Sewage Authority/Cmte. Plus the expertise of the ED of the 9 Mile Run Association.
From the testimony of average citizens who have written, spoken, called and otherwise communicated through appropriate channels to ALCOSAN, nothing other than new laws are going to generate anything close to a responsible response – and in a reasonable, you can count on it, timeframe.
In 1993. 60,000 – 80,000 was spent on a study of the pipes in back of the main Squirrel Hill stores on Forbes(the owner of Littles testified). The pipes are the original terra cotta and every time it rains, basements of these stores are flooded. No action has been taken on this study – that Shields verified as he was working for Bob O’Conner at the time.
A woman from four mile run showed pictures of water pressure pushing off man-hole covers, spurting 25 feet up in the air – leaving human waste all over her lawn and house.
ED from 9mile run association said we have more extreme water events to look forward to as the globe heats up and cities on the east coast of the country are having experiences similar to ours.
In response to citizen testimony, ALCOSAN staff repeatedly said they had to wait for their current study to be completed to address any of these issues. They appeared to be the human embodiment of sticks in the mud.
The man in the picture is a fireman who has lived in the same house for 30 years. Unlike when he was 5 years old, he has predictable and quite damaging flooding.
Hard to imagine that in this off-year, your vote could count for something really important. Besides the library initiative getting you to the polls, consider that legislature governing Marcellus shale drilling and our DRINKING WATER will wind up in Pennsylvania’s Courts. That’s why you should vote for Wecht and give his campaign a few bucks as well. In local elections ever dollar counts!
An eye opening meeting last night at the Jewish Community Center. Facilitated by our Councilman, Doug Shields, Squirrel Hill area residents aired their grievances to Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, Nine Mile Run Association, ALCOSAN, and City of Pittsburgh Public Works. The big picture is: due to the consistent rise in temperature, northeast cities have seen an upswing in dramatic rainwater events – for which our city’s infrastructure is ill-equipped. Residents testified to cleaning up human poop from combined sewage run-off in their yards and in their homes.
Artists’ Books on the Environment Closing Reception Join us on Tuesday, June 28 from 5-7 p.m. at Carnegie Mellon University, Arts Library and Special Collections, on the 4th floor of Hunt Library for a closing reception of the exhibition “Artists’ Books on the Environment.” This exhibition is currently being held in conjunction with “Too Shallow for Diving: the 21st Century is Treading Water” at the American Jewish Museum in Pittsburgh and includes books by artists in the AJM show. It features eighty works from miniature books to sculptural installations exploring every aspect of the human condition as influenced by our “natural” environment. Collectively the exhibition points to our ultimate remembering that human beings are inextricable forces within the ecological dynamic of our planet Earth and beyond.
The artists’ books exhibition continues through July 1. Works in the exhibition cases can be viewed anytime during library hours and in the Fine and Rare Book Room by appointment from Monday through Friday. For more information contact Mo Dawley, Art and Drama Librarian, 412-268-6625.
“Too Shallow for Diving: the 21st Century is Treading Water” with associated events continues at the Jewish Community Center through July 28 http://www.jccpgh.org/page/ajm
WATER’S WAYS: A Presentation & Discussion of Local Water Issues and Public Health
When: Monday, June 6, 7:00pm
Where: Jewish Community Center, 5748 Forbes Ave, Pittsburgh 15217 (Squirrel Hill near Murray Ave)
Contact: Ann Rosenthal, Dargan Street Studios, 412-688-0417, atrart
Web Site: http://www.jccpgh.org/page/ajm
In conjunction with the exhibition Too Shallow for Diving: the 21st Century is Treading Water, participating artists Ann Rosenthal and Steffi Domike have organized a discussion of local water issues and public health with environmental and academic leaders:
Dr. Patty DeMarco, Director of the Rachel Carson Institute, Chatham University will discuss water issues and choices for the 21st Century. Dr. Charles Christen, Director of Operations for the Center for Healthy Environments & Communities (CHEC) at University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health will address the public health implications of water and Marcellus Shale development. Dr. Christen worked closely with Dr. Conrad “Dan” Volz who recently resigned as Director of CHEC.
This event is free and open to the public. Those attending will have the opportunity to ask questions of the speakers and artists, and will be able to view the exhibition.
The exhibition Too Shallow for Diving: the 21st Century is Treading Water, guest curated by artist and educator Carolyn Speranza explores the environment, especially those issues surrounding water and its impact on our planet, human health and public welfare.
The dictionary tells us that a Requiem is a musical composition laying the souls of the dead to rest, presenting listeners with a remembrance of what has passed. Requiem for the Netmakers honors the loss of a way of life given by the sea – to generations of people working in the fishing industry globally – and in particular, the Gulf of Mexico. Requiem germinated with the hearing of a news story on a family business where generations had learned the art of net-making and where the family business was decimated by the 2010 BP oil spill. “For the last remaining net maker in St. Bernard Parish, Erwin Menesses Jr., that’s meant a 95 percent drop in business,” read the story.
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Deciphering the art installation-
The installation encompasses two walls in the Robinson building, intersecting at the doors to the Katz Performing Arts Center. The set-up has an element of ritual, in reflection of my time spent in pre-Katrina New Orleans, seeing the visual remembrances and homegrown artwork that people put up around grave sites, and hung in the chapel of St. Jude, asking the saint for assistance in the face of disease and loss of life. During the course of the exhibition the flowers will wilt and die and the ocean landscape, boat model and fishing lures may be added to with additional articles touching on the lives of fishing, shrimping and net-making people.
The repetition of the horizontal line, in the shelves, arrangement of digital frames, electrical outlets, landscape video monitor are intentionally stratified, visually making present landscape in our art historical catalog, landscape in our ocean’s horizon lines and the landscape of our ever-growing digital networks. The use of wood, intended to harken back to a past life-style and to bring drift wood into the piece — transformed through Angelo Gatto’s contribution and his ease of use of large, heavy materials.
In light of my young artist years looking at Anselm Kieffer landscapes and the gutsiness of Baselitz paintings, these elements made perfect sense in forming a framing foundation for the 2-walled piece – and in keeping an earth awareness in an artwork using a sizable amount of electronics.
Digital still and video imagery reflects the past several years of my work with online archives, intensive political immersion and constant monitoring of the news. Sources include the Associated Press Archive (media licensed for this exhibition), Library of Congress Archive, National Archives, Environmental Protection Agency Documerica project, photographs made available through Creative Commons licenses, Present Nixon’s 1970 State of the Union address, and the FEDERAL WATER POLLUTION CONTROL ACT, AS AMENDED BY THE CLEAN WATER ACT OF 1977. (on the transparency hanging on the short wall)
The lower tier of digital frames are a family album of the fishing industry, mostly in the Gulf, going back into our history– and even a time when small children shelled shrimp until that aspect of the industry was cut short by child labor laws.
The upper tier of digital frames presents a series of color permutations on an ocean wave impregnated by oil from the BP spill– giving us an opportunity to be fascinated and self-disgusted both by what human beings can do to the vast, beautiful and seemingly impenetrable ocean.
The pulse and heart of Requiem is the musical composition sculpted by Frank Ferraro in response to our conversations and back-forth dialog over what seemed like a short, intense period of time, beginning with my question, “What does oil sludge sound like?” In response to my queries, the initial dark ambient music was re-written as a 7 minute Requiem with the larger-than-life roles of the Global Corporate Gangsters, the Big Ocean, the fisher people, ghosts of oil drillers, a mermaid chorus and a very few oil covered animals all playing their parts. In re-viewing the edited video just now, I can hear the overall sadness, the plaintive piano and see the inevitable future we are headed in – unless we alter the course of human behavior on our planet.
May 14th at 7:00pm Too Shallow for Diving: the 21st Century is Treading Water opens to the public at the American Jewish Museum at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill. I will be speaking at 7:30 to introduce the project and to talk with you about creating new communities; the role of the artist; and issues on water and the environment. Please join me for an evening of engagement and celebration until 9:00 pm.
Throughout the course of the exhibition, environmental organizations will host citizen action workshops at the JCC, including Clean Water Action, Penn Environment and Penn Future. Green Drinks, a networking event for people working to make Pittsburgh greener in the areas of business, policy, new technologies and activism will be hosted by the AJM. Former professor Conrad “Dan” Volz, Jr., who recently resigned from his position at the University of Pittsburgh this April over his public health advocacy on water and natural gas drilling will give a presentation. Too Shallow for Diving artists will host workshops throughout the course of the exhibition which concludes July 28. All events are free and open to the public.
Too Shallow for Diving: the 21st Century is Treading Water has received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, The Buhl Foundation and The Sprout Fund. All of the exhibition’s artists have received honorariums to support the creation of new and provocative work.
TOO SHALLOW FOR DIVING: THE 21ST CENTURY IS TREADING WATER
AMERICAN JEWISH MUSEUM OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER OF GREATER PITTSBURGH MAY 16 – JULY 28, 2011
OPENING SATURDAY, MAY 14TH, 7 – 9 P.M.
CURATOR’S TALK: CAROLYN SPERANZA at 7:30 P.M.
PERFORMANCE: VANESSA GERMAN at 8:00 P.M.
THE ARTISTS:
Tim Collins and Reiko Goto
Jim Denney
Vanessa German
Prudence Gill
Jamie Gruzska
Richard Harned
Roger Laib
Lisa Link
Maritza Mosquera
Wendy Osher
Ann T. Rosenthal and Steffi Domike
Carolyn Speranza and Frank Ferraro
David Stairs
