Related Projects

Water Projects
  • Windows on the Floating World

    • A project using refracted light and other day/night lighting effects for a new mixed-use building

  • Xixi Umbrellas

    • Floating umbrella sculptures in the Xixi Wetland Park of Hangzhou, China

  • Terra Fugit

    • A park design that explores the changing Everglades environment to help visitors relate to a rapidly transforming landscape

  • WaterWorks at Arizona Falls

    • A permanent installation at an old hydropower station

  • A MoonTide Garden

    • A waste site transformed into a meditative rock garden that interacts with the tides of Portland, ME

  • Drawn Water

    • A permanent piece at the Cambridge, MA Water Treatment Plant about where water comes from and where it goes

  • The Bronx River Golden Ball

    • An annual event in the Bronx and Westchester Co., NY, where the ball focuses diverse communities on the river

  • Kenduskeag Roots

    • Four sites along the river trail using fallen trees and recorded sound

  • River Runes

    • A trail of installations focused on the river at Art Park

  • River

    • An illusionary river of water, light, and shadow

  • Communal Well

    • A participatory installation in Hawaii about drinking water

  • Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay

    • Proposal for the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon

  • Reclamation Art

    • Reclamation Artists Boston

Massachusetts
  • Man from City Hall

    • Boston City Hall becomes a giant character for First Night celebrations

  • Portrait Chairs

    • Seats of honor for readers in Norfolk, MA

  • In the Dense Words

    • A book environment for a book distribution company

  • Glove Cycle

    • Gloves go through a life cycle while leading passengers down into a Cambridge subway station

  • Asaroton, 1976

    • Bronze garbage embedded in a Boston crosswalk commemorates a produce market.

  • Ben’s Circular Tower

    • A place for storytelling and imagination on top of Boston’s Mission Hill

  • Gateway

    • An oversized table creates a fanciful gateway in a Cambridge middle school

  • Drawn Water

    • A permanent piece at the Cambridge, MA Water Treatment Plant about where water comes from and where it goes

  • 300 Summer Street

    • An artist-owned live/work studio building in Boston’s Fort Point area with recycled steel plate sculpture for the public spaces

  • The Bay Circuit Trail

    • A community project traversing the “Emerald Necklace” surrounding Boston

  • Submerge

    • Video collaboration by Mags Harries & Catherine Siller for Art on the Marquee at the Boston Convention Center

  • Speed of Light

    • Mags’ students illuminate the future route of transit connecting eight communities around Boston

  • River

    • An illusionary river of water, light, and shadow

  • Lucid Moment

    • Bringing together light, liquid, movement, and space

  • Three Gardens

    • Domestic scale gardens make intimate spaces on the grounds of the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, MA

  • One Legged Table

    • Bringing communities to the table to discuss global warming

  • Our Charles River

    • Exploring the connections between people, water and rivers

  • Reclamation Art

    • Reclamation Artists Boston

Winding Down the Charles

  • Location: Cambridge, MA.
  • Client: The Cambridge Arts Council
  • Materials: String, steel, blue ribbons, blue chalk, buckets
  • Collaborators: Scott Tiede,Kelly Kaczynski
  • Artist: Mags Harries

The Charles River

Map of the Charles River

Each year the Cambridge River Fesival is held in celebration of The Charles River.  Winding Down the Charles was an interactive public art installation located along the banks of the River. Over the course of two consecutive festivals the artists and Cambridge residents wound up 251 spools of string, equaling the 78.4 miles of the Charles from its origin to its outlet into Boston Harbor.

Spools and Needles

The spools of string were set along the river-bank and threaded through five 10’ steel Needle Towers.  The artists and Cambridge residents attending the River Festival continuously wound the string, day and night, into a growing ball.

Memories of the River

While the artists wound the ball, people  attending the River Festival were invited to write their thoughts and memories of the Charles River into a journal and on blue ribbons.  They then tied these ribbons to the string being wound up into the ball. Residents could reflect on the importance of the river in their lives.

Winding Down…

To wind up the 78.4 miles of string took two consecutive River Festivals. Each year, the ball was wound day and night for over forty hours, adding up to total of 87 hours of winding. In the first year 38 miles of string were wound. The following year in 1998 the entire river was wound up, creating a 37”, 550lbs ball, which is now mounted in a cart for display.

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