The Tap
2012-2020
Monoprints
50” x various dimensions
Watercolor and gouache on paper
with water from the East River and Gowanus Canal
These monoprints were made with water collected from the Gowanus Canal and the East River Estuary. Pigment was laid arbitrarily, and then a stream of water was added and allowed to find its way across the surface. At times, the paper was folded onto itself to create a Rorschach-like effect to produce an abstract image onto which different ideas might be projected.
These monoprints were made with thoughts about the city's history in, on, and with its waterways. They were made with the firsthand memories of experiencing Superstorm Sandy and how water moves and mixes with other materials (gas, oil, sand, dirt, sewage) and goes everywhere it can find its way into. They were made with the imagination of how the city's relationship to the water could be and the forms of access that could be granted.
The 'father' of the Rorschach Test, Hermann Rorschach, was the son of a painter. And as a child, he had the nickname 'Inkblot' (translated from German) because he loved making abstract figures from ink and folded paper. Though these works are not intended as any sort of psychological test, they are intended to prompt reflection about the waterways and inspire imagination for our shared more-than-human future.
The name of this series is taken from the history of using abstract images to test imagination and psychology, as well as how easy it can be to think that water is as easily controlled as through the faucets that bring it into our homes.