Monday, December 17, 2012

"Sierra Club tracks Gowanus Canal Superfund Clean-Up" CG CORD and Triada Samaras photo and words featured.

Hello from Triada!

I am pleased to announce that a photograph of the flooding Gowanus Canal taken during Hurricane Sandy by myself, an artist and a CORD Co-Founder;
  and a CG CORD commentary on the impacts of Sandy on the Gowanus Canal area written by me were featured recently in the City Sierran:  A Publication of the Sierra Club's New York City Group (Fall 2012) (page 3) next to an article on the Gowanus Canal clean-up process by Diane Buxbaum.  

My "Brooklynites Worst Collective Dream Come True"  (page 3) describes  the night of Sandy in detail and poses several urgent points including:

) Carroll Garden's flooded Evacuation route (Third Street over the Gowanus Canal) that was entirely impassable the night of Sandy.
2) The chemical and toxic effects of the Superfunded Gowanus Canal waters spilling into the community's streets, sidewalks and basements.
3) The fact that the Gowanus Canal corridor is slated for future development even though it is in Zone A and in obvious harm's way from the Canal floodwater.
4)  The trend of both rising sea levels and super storms all over NY due to global warming trends.

In an article entitled "Sierra Club tracks Gowanus Canal Superfund Clean-Up" (see below) NYC Group Gowanus Canal Cleanup Committee Chair, Buxbaum summarizes the Gowanus Canal clean-up to date, emphasizing that there will be a 60 day public comment period after the EPA releases its plan in December.  The Sierra Club plans to provide info to those who might wish to submit a letter.

Buxbaum writes, one of the main concerns of the Gowanus CAG/Community Advisory Board is that the City of NY insure that the NYC DEP do a complete job of addressing the CSO's (combined sewere overflows) that cause recontamination of the Canal with toxins and materials that will cause continuing sediment deposition from the discharges.  The CIty of NY has opposed the Superfund designation from the outset, and has offered only token CSO proposals.

CORD has also expressed deep concern with the CSO's situation in the Gowanus Canal in a recent post. See http://carrollgardenspetition.blogspot.com/2012/12/new-york-state-decdept-environmental.html



About the Sierra Club:  
In 1892, John Muir and a number of his supporters founded the Sierra Club to, in Muir's words, "do something for wildness and make the mountains glad." Muir served as the Club's president until his death in 1914. Read more about the history of the Sierra Club.  Today, the Sierra Club has over 1.3 million members and supporters and is the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. Find out more about the Sierra Club.  LINK

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Press Release 12/15/2012


Triada Samaras
email: triadasamaras@gmail.com 

       

For Immediate Release 12/15/2012

Interdisciplinary Artist, Triada Samaras, presents:
The State of Greece 2012:  Enoikiazetai-Poleitai / For Rent-For Sale
at Vital Space

This art project is an online photographic, socially-engaged, and textual one, featuring writings by art critic, Susan Handler, and writer, Yiannis Zaglaris. It also features an interactive Facebook page for viewers and the public to participate in this project. LINK

What:  The State of Greece 2012:  Enoikiazetai-Poleitai / For Rent-For Sale
With:  Triada Samaras at Vital Space / Urbanization and Emptiness
Date:  On-going

        What is the state of Greece today?  The photographic series: The State of Greece 2012: ΕΝΟΙΚΙΑΖΕΤΑΙ - ΠΩΛΕΙΤΑΙ: FOR RENT – FOR SALE explores this question…In a multitude of subtle and obvious ways, Greek economic austerity, as a theme, triumphs the Greek visual landscape in this moment. The words: ΕΝΟΙΚΙΑΖΕΤΑΙ - ΠΩΛΕΙΤΑΙ:  FOR RENT - FOR SALE dominate the streets, structures and spaces of Greece, repeating themselves ad nauseam along blocks of once occupied homes and shops, spelling out the current, disastrous Greek state of affairs.   It is impossible to ignore these signs, and their menacing forebodings. They point to the co-existent yet sometimes hidden stresses of poverty, and the lack of a clear future for Greece that are only too obvious to the people of Greece.
        As an interdisciplinary and socially engaged artist, Samaras’ work often grapples with contentious environmental, geographic, and social issues in New York City.  In addition to feeling an enormous compassion for the people of Greece, she states she cannot but help but notice the ominous similarities between the current Greek economic crisis and the less obvious one on American soil.
        Triada Samaras is an interdisciplinary and socially engaged artist living and working in NYC and at times, in Athens, Greece. Her work has been featured in numerous exhibitions and venues including the Sierra Club, Vital Space, Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn Old Stone House, Kentler International Drawing Center, and Macy Gallery, Columbia University, Kean University, Goddard College, Governors Island, NYC, and numerous blogs and online sites.
For more info: contact the artist.