TangenT
was an art collaborative co-founded by Yvonne Love, Gabrielle Russomagno, Mike Brenner, and William Cromar, dedicated to creating mixed-media, project-based, immersive art environments that explored socially relevant and politically current themes. The collective developed dynamic relationships with and exhibited in collaboration with a range of exhibition spaces, including Grossman Gallery at Lafayette College, the DUMBO Festival in Brooklyn, the Kimmel Center, International House Art Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania, the Science History Institute in Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, the Crane Arts Building, and DesignPhiladelphia.
Weight of Water
Weight of Water is a multi-year project by TangenT, created in partnership with community organizations, activists, and representatives from the EPA and CDC, and funded by Philadelphia’s Chemical Heritage Foundation. The project reflects on the complex intersections of impact, suffering, responsibility, and governance surrounding groundwater contamination in the Philadelphia metropolitan region.
The series premiered in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival’s Digital Fringe and later at Cellini Gallery in Ambler, PA, where it was accompanied by a public panel discussion. Through three site-specific installations, Weight of Water examines American ideals of individualism, patriotism, and community—and the erosion of trust in governance—in the aftermath of contamination near the former Johnsville Naval Air Force Base in Warminster, PA.
As journalist Kyle Bagenstose wrote in PhillyBurbs,
“Love, now an assistant professor of art at Penn State University’s Abington campus, is hoping that a new art project called Weight of Water will help Warminster residents sort through their conflicting emotions regarding the base and the decades of environmental contamination it has caused… The artists are pursuing a wide scope, focusing on chemicals such as benzene and trichloroethylene, which landed the former base on the EPA’s Superfund list in the 1990s, as well as the more recently discovered groundwater contamination of perfluorinated chemicals.”
Left Behind
An archival poem composed from fragments of historical Naval records documenting well water contamination — transforming bureaucratic text into a meditation on loss, memory, and environmental impact."Found Inside" slip caste porcelain of the chemicals found in the Wells in WarminsterThrough Weight of Water, TangenT invites reflection on the weight we carry—collectively and individually—when governance, industry, and community intersect beneath the surface.
REDaCT
REDaCT is a series of artworks that explore visual renderings of facts detailed in redacted public documents. Drawing from state and federal reporting on individuals and institutions along with redaction in its many forms, the REDaCT series is as much a meditation on information control, privacy, and truth as much as it is about what is left behind and what we choose to record, see, and know.
REDaCT #6 | Crane Arts. An installation in 3 chapters: she was he was (flyspec #3), case study #1, and they appear date: 2016 media: audio-video loops, sidewalk chalk, shredded paper, vintage typewriters, graphite wash. size: varies. You can view a compilation of images and videos on WilliamCromar.com.
/*rEDaCT*/ [REDaCT #5] | Philadelphia Digital Fringe
Web-based art installation. Visit /*rEDaCT*/ » size: size + duration varies with browser, device, and client
Live Performance at Kimmel Center In Philadelphia. Media: performance art procession with live slide guitar and percussion, tyvek suits, silkscreen patches, bunraku uniforms, video loops. Size: size varies with installation, 1 h duration.
flyspec [REDaCT#3] | Simulate/Permeate. Installation: media: tyvek suits, 6000 deceased flies hatched in 5 glass vitrines each 3” dia X 18” high, audio/video loops. Size: varies, 1 audio-video loop 10m duration, 1 video loop 3m duration.
flyspec [REDaCT #2] | Filmideo. Audio-visual. Size: 1080x1080px audio-videooop 10m duration.
The sound of flyspec [REDaCT #1] | DUMBO Arts Festival. Performance processional. Media: sound loop, tyvek suit, silkscreen patch, modified hydration pack, water. Size: 3h duration.
The Lafayette Series
The series of six works produced at Lafayette College represents TangenT Art Collaborative's first venture into serial production. While later series are thematically or topically linked, the Lafeyette series related works via formal strategy and technical process.
First Cut
Media: audio/video loop, horsehair, fasteners.
Size: varies with installation, 6m36s loop duration.
Swallow
Media: audio/video loop, clay, fasteners.
Size: varies with installation, 30s loop duration.
Refraction
Media: audio/video loop, tulle fabric, fasteners
Size: varies with installation, 5m49s loop duration.
Moulder
Media: audio/video loop, printed graphite, salt
Size: varies with installation, 6m09s loop duration.
Home (Honey House)
Media: audio/video loop, vintage glassine envelopes, honey, fasteners.
Size: varies. 5m49s loop.
Eco, Ecco, Echo
Eco, Ecco, Echo is the inaugural artwork of TangenT. It is a multimedia artwork questioning assumptions about consumption… eco—the environment… ecco—to observe… echo—to actively respond to what reverberates from what is seen. The near pornographic consumption revealed in the forms of waste produced by modern industrial cultures is investigated in a work designed around three elements: a mesmerizing animation, a full-bodied soundscape and the surprise of human interaction: a gift of portable art freely given to random passers-by.
