NYC Water Towers: A New Canvas for Artists

New York City’s water towers are iconic, and starting this month, a hundred of them will be covered in artwork created by Jeff Koons, Maya Lin, and other artists. The project is the brainchild of documentary filmmaker Mary Jordan. It’s meant to raise awareness of global water problems and encourage New Yorkers to drink their tap water.

“The city spends a gazillion dollars to protect that,” she says. “Why are you buying into this hype about this plastic water bottle?”

Most of the images are colorful and playful, but one of the tanks features a picture of a decomposing Albatross with plastic in his stomach – part of a series by photographer Chris Jordan. He admits, “I fly around the world on jets and I use my share of plastic all kinds of junk," but he hopes the image will make people feel something. “From there, it’s up to them if they change in any kind of way.”