Muscota, Mosholu, Tibbetts Brook (Installation View)
2022

Muscota, Mosholu, Tibbetts Brook is a series of cyanotype prints on paper that combine historical narratives with mapping to uncover buried pasts while investigating ecological issues. Comprising renderings from historical maps this project considers the impact of urbanization on New York City water systems and the shorelines now inaccessible to city residents.


During a 2018 Works on Water residency on Governors Island and a 2020 Winter Workspace residency at Wave Hill, I developed Mosholu, a series of drawings and cyanotypes documenting Tibbetts Brook's diversion into the city's sewage system over a century ago. Formerly a resource for food and navigation, Tibbetts Brook originated in Yonkers and flowed to the present day Harlem River. Today, Tibbetts Brook is evident when it floods the Broadway corridor during heavy rains. This, along with combined sewer overflow, a 19th-century system of managing stormwater, contributes to the ongoing pollution of New York City's naturally occurring rivers and streams. The area around Tibbetts Brook, thought to be called Muscota, "place in the reeds," by the Munsee-speaking Lenape, was mislabeled as Mosholu by 18th-century cartographers.


These prints along with the silk cyanotypes of Rivers, Dreams, Invisible Cities were exhibited in an exhibition in the Wave Hill House, Bronx, NY.

Tetards HIll
2022
Cyanotype on Paper
12 x 16 inches
Kingsbridge
2022
Cyanotype on Paper
12 x 16 inches
Community Dreams for Water
2022
Cyanotype on Paper
12 x 16 inches

Community Dreams for Water collected during the 2021 Works on Water Governors Island Residency.


1771
2022
Cyanotype on Paper
24 x 18 inches
Muscota
2022
Cyanotype on Paper
24 x 18 inches
South Broadway
2020
Cyanotype on Paper
24 x 18 inches
Van Cortlandt
2020
Cyanotype on Paper
24 x 18 inches
1880
2022
Cyanotype on Paper
24 x 18 inches
1777
2022
Cyanotype on Paper
24 x 18 inches
Harlem River
2020
Cyanotype on Paper
24 x 18 inches
Spuyten Duyvil
2020
Cyanotype on Paper
24 x 18 inches
Kingsbridge 1800
2022
Ink on Paper
20 x 30 inches
Muscota
2018
Charcoal and Pencil on Film
32 x 20 inches
South Broadway
2020
Charcoal and Pencil on Film
34 x 20 inches