Ground Play

Ground Play

A collaborative installation by the Nexus Foundation for Today’s Art and The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education’s Art Program
 

About the Exhibit

In Ground Play, The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education asked six artists from Nexus, a co-operative comprised of Philadelphia-based multi-disciplinary artists based in Kensington, Philadelphia, to respond to the history and physical space of its Second Site (Brolo Hill Farm). Exhibiting artists include Susan Abrams, Nick Cassway, Jebney Lewis, Michael McDermott, Leah Reynolds, and Jennie Thwing.

The Schuykill Center’s Second Site is one of the most unique and picturesque settings for public art in Philadelphia. Known historically as Brolo Hill Farm, Second Site was at one time an active farmstead. It includes an 18th-century farm house and barn and the remnants of a plowed field once used to grow feed hay for livestock. In Ground Play, Nexus artists are considering both the agricultural and cultural conditions that might have existed on the site when the farm was active, and will examine through their installations the implications of those dynamics in today’s environmental climate.

See Jennie Thwing’s video about Ground Play:

Ground Play: NEXUS at The Schuylkill Center from Jennie Thwing on Vimeo.

 

By using found objects, photographing discoveries, researching the area’s history, or by weaving stories into their own work’s narrative, the artists considered the relationship of play to their work within this context. The work in Ground Play is an expression of the insightful ways these six artists use color, scale, sound, texture, humor, fear, storytelling and performance as their own artistic playground, coming up with new modes of expression and creating experiences meant to delight and provoke visitors.

Below, Jennie Thwing’s Piece, Brolo Hill Project, created on site.

Brolo Hill Project from Jennie Thwing on Vimeo.