09/03/2026
Stop by MADE, Terminal 13 42nd street Brooklyn. The last day is September 17. Worldwide, water is the substance of life. Evolutionarily, hydrogen dioxide (H2O) represents from whence we came; biochemically, it remains vital to the survival of both organism and species. Countless traditions bestow on water elevated spiritual significance. It quenches thirst, fueling the athlete and curing the ailing. In steady drips, it can erode stone over millennia; pressurized, it can cut through steel in seconds. 700,000 gallons per second rush over Niagara Falls, spinning turbines to electrify the grid; hundreds of millions of gallons per day pass through pipes across the nation to cool server towers in data centers. To meet our needs, water is frozen into ice and heated into steam; pumped through our houses and beneath our streets. Oceans, rivers, and lakes are farmed and fished for food, simultaneously enduring as sites of recreation and escape. While it would be impossible to plumb the depths of meaning inherent to all things aquatic, our shared reality, physical and philosophical, is endlessly inflected by water’s tremendous literal and symbolic power.
“Industrial” conjures notions of widespread mechanization, corporate expansion, proliferation of capital, and development of new built environments. The exponential growth in production capacity, exploitation of human labor, and ecological degradation which defined that 19th century revolution has left a legacy that continues even to this day. Until industry reached Sunset Park, the neighborhood was largely rural. By 1900, however, the Brooklyn waterfront had become the booming epicenter of global trade: a hub between transatlantic old-world imports and the Erie Canal shipping lane reaching westward from New York. Activity between Bay Ridge and Greenpoint was shaped by a robust network of piers, warehouses, and factories, while waves of immigration arrived to meet the demand for workers, whose families would eventually populate the neighborhood, borough, city, state, and country, in the process wholly redefining American society, culture, and politics.
