A note from the curators

 

Why Water?

 

Water = life. Water is what we know before we know anything else. Water gives birth to humans, just as it was water that gave birth to our capital city. For all the jokes about the District of Columbia being built on a swampy tidal marsh, it really is true that we owe much of the richness of our city’s existence, cultural and otherwise, to the waters that flowed here long before it grew into the rebellious teenager of a metropolis that we find today.

 

That our city is divided is no revelation. It is literally and figuratively separated into various communities, neighborhoods, sections and wards. Most famously it is separated into four quadrants, each representing something different to its inhabitants and to “outsiders.” Through the years, water has played a major – if not underrated – role in shaping the structure of these quadrants (and subsequent neighborhood development).

 

There are the well-known waters of the District – those featured on our city’s “stars and bars” symbol – and those that stand out in bright blue on the map. But there are also many others that, though perhaps less recognized, have had arguably equal impact in the development of D.C. Did you know that a creek once ran the length of the city from The Old Soldier’s Home to the Capitol? Or that Constitution Avenue was once a waterway?

 

This project aims to rediscover the history of some of Washington, D.C.’s waterways, and how they have influenced the “personality” of our city – both geographically and culturally. Like the city itself, many of our rivers, creeks, tributaries and branches have been restructured, redirected, created and covered, often dramatically influencing those living around them.

 

Though D.C. has been around the block more than once, it is in a new adolescence, one that is breaking away from the tropes of political mechanism and, if we can hope, will recall some of its more unique features – like the rivers and creeks, tributaries and branches, that have been restructured, redirected, created and covered, not unlike the city itself.

 

 

 

How It Flows

 

For what ever reason one might ascribe, it appears we Washingtonians have largely abandoned the abundant waters around us. As a collective whole, we do not enjoy or use the gift of these waters the way we could, or should. We have lost sight or track of small waterways, while we’ve left the Anacostia to gurgle along in toxic sludge. Despite being buttressed by two major rivers, we have limited access points to them. And yet, and yet. It is so, there, everywhere. Mustn’t there be something to see, to feel? The answer we came to find, yes.

 

We began our investigation by embracing the stark and familiar quadrantial division offered by the current plan of the District. Through exploration of four aquatic sites, one located in each quadrant of the city, our group of photographers and poets set out with the goal to examine, comment on, and reveal something about the way and state of life, as it relates to the water and otherwise, in the corresponding quadrant. The chosen sites were Kingman Lake in the NE, Oxon Run in the SE, Fletcher’s Cove/C&O Canal in the NW, and the Tidal Basin in the SW.

 

There were, of course, both similarities and distinct differences among the sites, some expected and some unexpected. Without detracting too much from the images/video, words/sounds you will experience here, for yourself, suffice it to say that one is as likely to come across a family of immigrants as a family of fox, to find fish for supper or find one with two tail fins.

 

In many cases, we felt completely lost, separate, removed from anything else happening anywhere else; in others, a very strong sense of where we were in relation to the rest of the city, and where each particular body of water or stream originated and led to pervaded.

 

Common themes that we encountered and that you will sense as you take in the exhibit are Birth (of the city, of its people – literally and figuratively); Regeneration (biological and cultural); Redirection (of waterways, of the growth of the city, of our thoughts); Urban Nature; Human relationships to nature (especially in an urban environment); Fluidity; Ebb and Flow (of progress, of digression); Built Environment; Power (over nature, over each other) vs. Need (of water, of each other); Segregation (forced and chosen).

Ultimately, our hope is that, as you visit and view our exhibit, the “voice” of each of the sites that we absorbed and its surroundings will be channeled through and transferred to you, inspiring your own explorations of Washington’s waters and awakening in you the connection to a universal rhythm and flow that pulses within, and then extends beyond, the borders of our city.