A new project from non-profit group Word Above the Street is bringing together artists and musicians including Lawrence Weiner, Jay-Z, and Thom Yorke to help transform 300 city water tanks into public artwork.
The 12-week initiative hopes to raise awareness of the importance of water conservation and is being supported by the likes of both The Ford Foundation and the Dorothea Leonhardt Foundation.
The Art Newspaper reports:
The project is run by Mary Jordan, a film-maker and activist, with a curatorial team that includes Lisa Dennison, the chairman of Sotheby’s North and South America, Neville Wakefield, the senior curatorial adviser for MoMA PS1, Alison Gingeras, the head curator of François Pinault’s collection and Toby Devan Lewis, a trustee of the New Museum of Contemporary Art.
While the project's star-studded billboard might seem like an odd place for Jay-Z and Thom Yorke to be included, both have been known for their active participation in various environmentalist programs.
In 2010, Yorke collaborated with renowned environmentalist Bill McKibben to mobilize a large-scale, globally crowdsourced experiment that brought together volunteers for the project, Earth350. The Radiohead frontman has also been known for his outspoken frustrations over political leaders getting in the way of reducing emissions and failing to act on climate change.
For several years, Jay-Z has worked with UNICEF to present "Water for Life" and has visited several third-world countries to meet with young people to discuss the problems blocking their access to safe and consumable water supplies.
Watch a clip of Jay-Z's "Water for Life" below: