"Peter
Walsh’s performance piece, New Croton Aqueduct
Water Flow Reversal Plan, also dealt with the significance
of community, but expanded it beyond Brewster’s
borders to suggest that it is a pressing national and
universal concern with political implications. Walsh,
invited by Gugelberger, invented a fake public water project
in which the water flow from Brewster to New York would
be reversed. His performance was a self-proclaimed “thanking
project” for the people of Brewster, an acknowledgement
that the province has been supporting New York City since
Brewster water began flowing downstream with the construction
of the Croton Reservoir System. The building of eleven
dams and reservoirs on the Croton River by New York city’s
Department of Environmental Protection at the turn of
the century meant that arable land was flooded and properties
were condemned in order to guard the quality of the watershed.
As a result, 25% of the population, approximately 200
households, left the land, and of those who remained many
became resentful of the NYC-orchestrated incursion. Dressed
like a politician, Walsh set up an activist table in front
of the Southeast Museum and distributed bilingual pamphlets
explaining the project to the public. In addition, he
brought tap water from his home in Brooklyn which he gave
out, at no cost. The irony, of course, is that this water
originated from the Croton Reservoir System but cannot
be drunk by local residents, since New York City owns
it. In effect, Walsh acknowledged that New York City controls
Brewster, materially restricting the life of its residents;
Brewster provides it with the water it needs, enhancing
life in the metropolis. In this performance, water essentially
becomes a metaphor for the faceless flow of capital that
dictates the life and fate of individuals in the sphere
of the everyday. By reversing the flow and turning ostensibly
“natural” power relations topsy-turvy, Walsh
is recognizing that small communities and individuals
need to reclaim their power through radical means. And
the best way to achieve it, Walsh suggests, is by a Situationist
détournement of the capitalist power structure,
a creative appropriation and reorganization of pre-existing
elements to critique the status quo."
