Drawing Dock Creek: Winifred Lutz
Independence National Historical Park
From Walnut to Chestnut between Third & Fifth Streets (on view 24/7)
Through 27 September 2008
FIND the “underground” in Independence National Historical Park. Follow the path of a creek buried long ago under the streets of colonial Philadelphia. Discover the good, the bad, and the dangerous in Dock Creek’s evolution from pristine creek to polluted sewer.
Download our brochure or pick up a copy at the APS Museum and follow the Dock Creek markings to Third Street and then continue along what is now Dock Street.
Performance artist Brett Keyser will present TANN, HORNS, & DEAD DOGS along the "banks" of Drawing Dock Creek.
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Drawing Dock Creek is a temporary outdoor art installation by Winifred Lutz that marks the path of a historical tidal stream buried long ago under the streets of Philadelphia. |
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Philadelphia developed around Dock Creek, a vital artery in the heart of the colonial city that ran west from the Delaware River. Yet the now-buried stream has vanished both from the city's ecological history and from its sense of place. A pristine waterway when William Penn founded Philadelphia, it soon became so polluted by tanneries, breweries, and slaughterhouses, eventually turning into a sewer and then a subsurface waterway, now long forgotten. |
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The current project began in April 2009, when Lutz "drew" Dock Creek by marking the dry creek bed with tinted whitewash and lime, over grass, brick, cobble, and concrete. |
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The six-month long project culminates with a "Grande Finale" in September 2009--the installation of thousands of feet of vibrant blue elastic cord that reanimates the creek where it forks into two branches.
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This photograph shows the piece from the underneath, lying on the ground and looking up through the elastic cord. |
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Drawing Dock Creek seen from the roof of the First Bank building, 3rd Street between Chestnut and Walnut Streets. The blue elastic cord appears paler seen from this vantage point. |
As Peter Dobrin explained in his ArtsWatch blog, "Lutz has arranged the bands so that they form a kind of large-scale lenticular. If you look at the installation from the side, or if the light is particularly bright, you can clearly see the grass underneath and the bands of synthetic material over them. But viewed from the front (that is, looking east) on in less bright light the individual bands merge and form a surface that looks very much like water."
Performance by Brett Keyser/Nightjar Apothecary at Drawing Dock Creek
Brett Keyser/Nightjar Apothecary will present TANN, HORNS, & DEAD DOGS, a ribald salute to Dock Creek and its history along the "banks" of Lutz's installation 
Map of Drawing Dock Creek & Surrounding Historic District
All Photo Credits: Frank Margeson
