Wet Lab

May 23 – August 18, 2018

laboratory
n.
any place, situation, set of conditions, or the like, conducive to experimentation, investigation, observation, etc.

Water is essential, both to our planet and to our programming. The Schuylkill Center named 2018 the Year of Water, and water flowed indeed through many of our programs over the course of the year. The art program focused our exhibitions on various angles on water topics, and, in the summer, we opened up our process for broader participation by area artists and the public.

Part of the Schuylkill Center’s mission statement charges us to serve as a living laboratory; our LandLab residency likewise serves as a generative program to support artists experimenting with ecological works of art on our site. In order to facilitate Wet Lab, our art gallery was transformed into a laboratory as well.

Throughout the summer, our art gallery became Wet Lab, a space for artists and Schuylkill Center visitors to explore and reflect on water in a dynamic environment. In contrast to a more traditionally curated exhibition, the artists, art works, and projects on view flowed and shifted throughout the summer. Artists displayed completed works along with works in progress, at times using the gallery as their studio to work through a new idea or test creative hypotheses. Sometimes multiple artists were in the space, at other times one artist occupied the whole space.

As our 2017-2018 LandLab artists approached the end of their residencies in the summer, Wet Lab allowed them space to make their process visible to audiences. Other local artists joined Wet Lab for shorter term engagements, exploring water from a variety of angles. Water-related books, readings, questions, and reflections provided visitors with resources to do their own observations and sink into their own water laboratory in the gallery space. And, Schuylkill Center staff reflected on water in various ways, gathering learnings and insights from our Year of Water programming to date.

We invited visitors to step into the lab with us for a summer of experimentation, investigation, observation, and more.

Wet Lab opened with a reception on May 23rd from 6-8pm.

Participating artists included:

Roderick Coover, Kate Farquhar May 23-June 9

Roderick Coover, May 23-June 9

Made by the Schuylkill Center Land & Facilities team out of invasive Cork Tree

Roderick Coover, May 23-June 9

Kate Farquhar, May 23-June 9

Roderick Coover, Kate Farquhar May 23-June 9

Photo credits go to Jerome Eno

Photo credits go to Jerome Eno