Forming on Empty

The Kelly Natatorium at the Fairmount Water Works sits adjacent to the Schuylkill River; the former a dulled and still mirror of the latter, where sunlight reflected upon the surface dances on the ceiling, and the rolling flow contrasts with concrete forms that once held water and people. The karesansui (dry landscape garden / 枯山水) mumbles suggestions of the river, allows us to visualize individual units of the composite, and to trace new patterns and paths in stone. The sounds below the surface visit us up above, and light on the water calls out clearly. The occasion of the semiquincentennial simultaneously conjures scattered blue historical markers and oozing lacunae. What is happening here? There are 250 rules for monastic life. A reward can be split four ways, and 250 incense burners were swallowed by the earth. Something’s going on that’s not quite clear. But from silence and emptiness, bells will ring to echo the passing of time, memories, and signal collective possibilities.

About the Artist

Eugene Lew is a guide, producer, educator, rock gardener, and organizer primarily engaged in performance, design, access, management, transformation, (attempted) capture, storage, and playback of shared IRL experiences – with a sound/music bias. The fleeting moment, aggregate independent decision-making, and stochastic phenomena are especially fascinating and vital to his practice and general existence. He welcomes serendipitous collaborations and treasures long-term partnerships that seek to navigate and explore the constant cycle of remembering-learning-forgetting-reconstructing.