FLUX PROJECTS PRESENTS “ATLANTA TO THE ATLANTIC”
Flux Projects, in partnership with the South River Watershed Alliance (SRWA), presents Atlanta to the Atlantic, a project by artists Rachel Parish and Sarah Cameron Sunde to raise awareness about the South River and the impact Atlanta neighborhoods have on the quality of water downstream. To kick off their research, Parish and Sunde will journey hundreds of miles along the river from its beginnings in Atlanta to the Atlantic Ocean, then return to Atlanta to create a series of temporary public art installations in three Atlanta neighborhoods.
“We’re thrilled to collaborate with the South River Watershed Alliance, the only organization working to protect the South River. Saving our water resources is one of the biggest challenges facing our region, and how we as a community address it now impacts future generations,” said Anne Archer Dennington, executive director of Flux Projects. “Flux Projects believes that through public art we can better connect with communities to share stories about this precious resource and how we can protect it.”
Launching mid-May and continuing through the end of June, artists Rachel Parish and Sarah Cameron Sunde will travel by foot and kayak along the waters of the South River, from its beginnings in Southeast Atlanta to Sapelo Island. The journey will take them from the South River to the Ocmulgee, then along the Altamaha and finally to the river’s end at the Atlantic Ocean.
To highlight the interconnectedness of Georgia's urban and rural communities, Parish and Sunde will invite connection and engagement from local communities along the way. Documenting this journey, they hope their observations will construct a dynamic portrait of the human and natural communities that are united by this vital waterway.
Returning to Atlanta this fall, their project will culminate with a series of temporary installations along the tributaries in three Atlanta neighborhoods. These installations will highlight the presence of the waterway, offer opportunities for recreation and reflection, and incorporate elements of the collective portrait that emerged along the journey. Through the installations and supporting programs, the project seeks to bring residents in closer relationship with the water flowing through their neighborhoods, while strengthening community understanding of how to improve the river’s water quality and enhance the health of our environment.
This project is supported in part by a South Arts Cross-Sector Impact Grant. These grants support "arts and..." projects developed by partners—one arts organization or artist, and one non-arts organization. Through this program South Arts aims to facilitate partnerships that harness the power of collaboration to bring new opportunity, increased effectiveness, and greater depth to collective work between the arts community and other sectors. Additional program support is provided in part by the LUBO Fund.
Atlanta to the Atlantic is part of FLOW, Flux Projects’s multi-year series designed to explore Atlanta’s relationship with water, how it has shaped our city and the potential it holds for our future. FLOW engages issues of conservation, equity, and urban design through installations and performances around the city.
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About Flux Projects:
Flux Projects commissions public art that invites audiences in Atlanta to explore the city’s sites and stories as a means to imagining its future possibilities. These projects disrupt the everyday and inspire imagination, wonder, and awe. They support artists to take risks and grow their practices whether they are internationally acclaimed or producing their first public work. They create communal spaces for people of all walks of life. And they bring a location’s past, present and future into conversation in ways that open our eyes to new possibilities. Flux Projects gives art the space to transform.
About Rachel Parish:
An Atlanta-based interdisciplinary artist, Rachel Parish works with diverse ecologies of collaborators, including humans, non-humans, and their histories. Whether creating performances in London, developing art-based compassion trainings with the NYPD’s Hostage Negotiation Team, or designing creative placemaking programs in Atlanta, her work draws from conceptual and social practice, bringing together complex and often divided communities to guide them through collaborative co-creative processes.
Parish’s visual and performance art has been shown at venues internationally including Tate Britain, de Young Museum, Lyric Hammersmith, Battersea Arts Centre, and the Woodruff Art Center, as well as in public spaces such as train stations, community centers, homes for the elderly, streets, and in schools.
Parish is currently a Spillways Fellow at Antenna (New Orleans), the Inaugural Artist in Residence at the Vlerick Business School (Belgium), and a Scholar-in-Residence with Art on the Atlanta BeltLine.
About Sarah Cameron Sunde:
A New York-based interdisciplinary artist and director, Sarah Cameron Sunde works with performance, video, and public art. She was recently awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to complete her ongoing series of works, 36.5/A Durational Performance with the Sea (2013 – present, nine works on six continents). In 2017, Sunde instigated and co-founded Works on Water, an artist-driven experimental organization dedicated to art that is made on/in/with bodies of water.
Her work has been seen and experienced at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, 3LD Art & Technology Center, the Knockdown Center, EFA Project Space, Little Island, Rattlestick, Kennedy Center, Guthrie Theater and presented internationally in Norway, the Netherlands, Bangladesh, Brazil, Mexico, China, Uganda, and Iraqi Kurdistan. Residencies include LMCC Workspace, Watermill Center, Hermitage Foundation, and Baryshnikov Art Center.
Honors include a Princess Grace Award, Creative Climate Award First Prize, Funding from MAP Fund, Invoking the Pause, LMCC / Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, Norwegian Consulate, and Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst. She holds a B.A. in Theater from UCLA and an M.F.A. in Digital and Interdisciplinary Art Practice from The City College of New York, CUNY.