Water Gives Life

A new mural from artists Eurhi Jones and David McShane celebrates the connection between Philadelphia’s rivers and local flora, and between the Philadelphia Water Department and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. Water Gives Life reimagines the 1998 mural painted by McShane in the same location, building on a history of work with PHS to open up discussions of sustainability and the urban landscape. Inspired by Japanese–American sculptor Ruth Asawa’s hanging wire sculptures, the design features botanical arrangements suspended above an aerial view of the city, showing the complex network of pipes that deliver clean water from the Schuylkill to the Delaware.

Water Gives Life marks the third collaboration between Jones and PWD, including 2015’s Waterways, a temporary art project in Manayunk that used wildlife-themed art decals on sidewalks and buildings to highlight a major water infrastructure project.