Blackstone Watershed Papers

Blackstone Watershed Papers was a temporary wheat-paste installation of 6 paperworks on building surfaces in downtown Pawtucket, Rhode Island, exploring place through the medium of papermaking and cyanotype—both historical industrial technologies and contemporary handcrafts. The artist-made papers are made of locally found pondweed and plants that impact the Blackstone River Watershed, and each contact print uses the actual plants as silhouettes.

Cyanotype is a historical photographic process that was most famously used in 1853 by Anna Atkins to study and record plants. Parallel to this technological development, Pawtucket was becoming the birthplace of the American industrial revolution. This project reflects upon connections between these histories, local plant ecologies in the past and present, and the important role of the Blackstone River in the shaping of the local landscape. Viewers used a Google Map of the installation sites, walking around downtown to view the works.

Blackstone Watershed Papers, Cyanotype on artist-made paper from water chestnut, Japanese knotweed, eurasian milfoil, abaca, 6 at 36 x 36 in, 2018

Installed in downtown Pawtucket, Rhode Island, USA