Headwaters

As site-specific artists, we were drawn to the area informally called “the old boiler room.” This underground space immediately appealed to us: water running down the walls, the remnants of mud from previous floods, old architectural remnants from the building’s long history, and a dramatic elevated central slab all combined to influence how our installation developed. We began by learning about the physical aspects of water, its ability to change from ice to fluid to vapor all within our livable temperature range. It is an unusual substance. We investigated the strange structures and interactions of those three phases but ultimately our concepts became more universal. We know our planet can support life due to the cycling of water from sea to sky to earth, from one living thing to another, and within our cells. Our weather in all its complexity and visual glory likewise depends on this eternal looping of water molecules. The elemental beauty and power recognized in these endless manifestations—from placid ponds to violent storms, from moisture hidden in subterranean rocks to turbulent vortices, from delicate ice crystals to crushing glaciers—have inspired an ocean of Art. We are adding but a tiny droplet.

About the ArtistS 

Carolyn Healy is a sculptor and John Phillips is a sound and video artist. Each has received numerous grants and commissions individually, but for the past several decades they have collaborated on large, site-based, multi-media projects such as: a performance/ installation on a river barge with tugboat for Whitman at 200, Philadelphia; an entire cellblock in historic Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia; stage set and sound for performances of James Joyce’s Molly Bloom soliloquy at La MaMa and Symphony Space, NYC and the Cini Foundation, Venice, Italy. Installations in historic industrial buildings incorporating artifacts found on location include Disston Saw Works and Globe Dye Works, both in Philadelphia, and the Wheaton Arts glass museum in Millville, New Jersey. The artists have created four installations for the Philadelphia Live Arts and Fringe Festivals, in a storefront, warehouse, loft, and elevator shaft, as well as commissioned works for the International Computer Music Conferences in Ann Arbor, Michigan and in Beijing, China. Gallery and museum settings for their art have included Suyama Space, Seattle, Washington; Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Rowan University Art Gallery and Museum, Glassboro, New Jersey; the Institute of Contemporary Art and Drexel University’s Pearlstein Gallery, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.