Be Like Water

2010, Approx. 25' x 25' x 25' | 7.62 x 7.62 x 7.62m, post-consumer plastic (80,000 bottle caps, 9,000 polyethylene terephthalate bottles) tinted polycrylic, hardware. 

The title Be Like Water is taken from a Bruce Lee quote: “Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” Be Like Water is an installation that adapts to different architectural settings like water filling a cup. For its creation, I engaged with students at 7 schools in Philadelphia who collected white and clear plastic bottle caps to use in the piece. Be Like Water is partially the result of my marveling at the fact that when you cut a 2-liter soda bottle into a 1/4” spiral strip, it yields a length of polyethylene terephthalate that is 25’ long. Be Like Water was originally commissioned by the City of Philadelphia Dept. of Cultural Affairs, Skybox, Curator Eileen Tognini, and private donors. It has since been installed in various locations in the United States and abroad.