Waterfire Providence

Barnaby Evans’ WaterFire® is an artwork involving movement, participation and surprise. When visitors encounter WaterFire, they cannot absorb the sculpture from just their sense of sight or even from a single vantage point — they must walk through the installation and they must use all five of their senses. WaterFire is full of motion — throughout the night the firetenders stoke the fires, the boats move past the flames, the rivers flow quietly beneath the braziers, and the flickering flames reflect off the dark surface of the water animating the architectural fabric of the city.

The multi-sensory stimulation of WaterFire transforms our perception of the urban landscape. WaterFire opens all of our senses to our surroundings Ñ it is an invitation to slow down and walk through the city in the European tradition of the paseo and the passeggiata. We savor the artwork’s surprises, view the city’s vistas and mingle with our fellow citizens. In the process we recreate the public space of downtown Providence.

Ceremony:
Expression of shared feelings and attitudes through more or less formally ordered actions of an essentially symbolic nature performed on appropriate occasions. A ceremony involves stereotyped bodily movements, often in relation to objects possessing symbolic meaning. Ceremonies express, perpetuate, and transmit elements of the value and sentiment system and . they intensify the solidarity of the participants