Opening Reception; What Water Wants

Saturday, October 5, 2024
4:00–6:30 PM
Lewis MacAdams Riverfront Park 

Clockshop invites you to celebrate the opening of artist Rosten Woo’s binaural audio tour What Water Wants along the pedestrian path of the Los Angeles River. This family-friendly event will feature opportunities to connect to the natural world and learn about nature-based solutions toward climate resilience. Offerings include hands-on workshops by artist Misa Chhan and mycologist Danielle Stevenson, and educational activities with community partners California State Parks, the Inclusive Infrastructure Design Lab, the Safe, Clean Water Program, and The Nature Conservancy. 

Attendees can reserve a timed spot on one of the consecutive 30-minute tours with provided binaural over-the-ear headsets upon arrival. The tour is available in both English and Spanish, and bilingual staff will be present. Attendees can enjoy the reception with music by DJ Muezette while waiting for or after finishing their tour. Light refreshments will be provided. All ages are welcome.

A special raffle will be held for two lucky tour-goers to take home a bike from Coco’s Variety Bike and Prop. Raffle winners will be announced at 6:00 PM. 

WORKSHOPS
Shades of Blue: Cyanotype with Misa Chhan
Learn how to create images using the power of the sun! Known for its brilliant blue hues, cyanotype is a photosensitive printing process that utilizes UV light. Artist Misa Chhan will teach you the basics of this printmaking method and offer various objects like fallen leaves and pre-cut stencils of text and shapes to sun print. 

Misa Chhan is a Los Angeles-based artist who works with the natural world in her art-making practice. She integrates gardening, natural dye and mineral research, and coaxing color from plants throughout her daily life. Chhan received a BA in Book Arts at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Fun with Fungi with Danielle Stevenson
Step into the exciting world of mushrooms! Danielle Stevenson will illuminate how fungi can detoxify chemical pollutants in soil and support many life cycles that ultimately regenerate ecosystems. 

Danielle Stevenson is an applied scientist, mycologist, and environmental problem-solver who works with fungi, soils, plants, and people to address wastes and pollutants in creative ways. Her dissertation research focused on bioremediation of brownfields with fungi and plants in Los Angeles. She founded educational programs such as D.I.Y. Fungi and Healing City Soils. She received her PhD in Environmental Toxicology from University of California, Riverside. 

ACTIVITIES WITH COMMUNITY PARTNERS
The California Department of Parks and Recreation, popularly known as California State Parks, provides for the health, inspiration, and education of the people of California by helping to preserve the state’s extraordinary biological diversity, protecting its most valued natural and cultural resources, and creating opportunities for high-quality outdoor recreation. In 2003, California State Parks purchased the 18-acre Bowtie parcel to make a community vision of park space along a revitalized Los Angeles River a reality.

The Inclusive Infrastructure Design Lab (IIDL) is a design research laboratory that seeks to achieve inclusive, nature-based outcomes for the LA River and similar climate-stressed landscape infrastructure. IIDL’s main project is a 60’ long hydraulic model of the LA River with a custom augmented reality (AR) inclusive design interface in the city’s Hydraulic Research Analysis Laboratory in the Elysian Valley.

The Safe, Clean Water Program works directly with communities, municipalities, agencies, and individuals to create projects that capture and clean stormwater, while also providing quality of life improvements. The Program is essential, especially as climate change causes unpredictable and destructive weather patterns, such as droughts and historic storms, that pollute our waterways.

The Nature Conservancy (TNC), a global environmental nonprofit, is working in California to accelerate the implementation of nature-based climate solutions to support a stable climate and resilient ecosystems, and to protect wildlife and people from the impacts of climate change. They focus on science, policy, and the implementation of on-the-ground projects like at the Bowtie Parcel, directing and ensuring funding for nature-based solutions, and partnerships.

MUSIC
Music by Muezette
Muezette has carved out her niche everywhere in the Los Angeles music scene from Red Carpet premieres to popular local bars and most recently, the Coachella Music Festival. No matter where the gig may take place, the goal will always be to bond and move with others through the music.

SUPPORT

Lead support is provided by the Getty Foundation with additional support from ARLA, The Nature Conservancy, National Endowment for the Arts (Our Town), Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), and Clockshop’s generous community of supporters. Clockshop also thanks MRCA (Mountain Recreation & Conservation Authority) for the generous use of Lewis MacAdams Park for the installation.

What Water Wants is among more than 70 exhibitions and programs presented as part of PST ART. Returning in September 2024 with its latest edition, PST ART: Art & Science Collide, this landmark regional event explores the intersections of art and science, both past and present. PST ART is presented by Getty. For more information about PST ART: Art & Science Collide, please visit pst.art.