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Tank IV: Sludge Lines
Show Title: Flood Lines
Venue: Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, NY
Date: September 22-28th, 2026
Team: Seth Wenger, Elizabeth Hénaff, Léonard Roussel
Collaborators: [sludge sampling] Emma Brown, Sophia Barbaria, Matthew O’Hare
Goal: For climate week 2026, Pioneer Works commissioned an installation of
Description:
Tank IV: Sludge Lines, 2026
55 gallon glass tank, salvaged infrastructure, live sediment, water and shoreline artifacts from the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, NY
Once a productive tidal estuary, the Gowanus Canal is now an infamously contaminated waterway. Throughout the last two centuries of industrialization its resident microorganisms have evolved to remediate our toxic trace. In this tank are featured live sediment and water from the Canal, creating a vessel to contemplate these hard to see but vibrant cohabitants.
The borders of the waterway were redrawn to fit the geometries of urban development and it is now far from the natural flood buffer of an estuary. Its margins continue to be hardened with a new impermeable concrete bottom to contain contamination.
By watching what grows slowly in this inhospitable place, can we develop unexpected sensitivities and responsibilities towards the often overlooked actors in our urban coastal environments – the microscopic, the nonhuman, the nonliving?
Collective Scope is currently comprised of Elizabeth Henaff, Heather Parrish, Leonard Roussel and Seth Wenger. We make media and installation art exploring human-microbe relationships in the context of anthropogenic change.
Installation View
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Detail View
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Process
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Catalog
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