This project consists of the construction and maintenance of shrines dedicated to the drainage system of Rutgers University's Livingston Campus in Piscataway, New Jersey. These drains flow into the Raritan River and from there into the Atlantic Ocean. My process is one of paying consistent attention over time, of growth and accumulation through repeated visits.

I invite viewers to visit the shrines, either independently or on guided walking tours. I intend this pilgrimage to be an experience during which viewers are given the opportunity to try out an alternate way of understanding and engaging their immediate surroundings. The tour focuses on the overlay of geography, ecology, history, and technology onto present day land use and includes hidden components of university infrastructure, the former site of the Mason Gross sculpture department, and remnants of Camp Kilmer, a World War II military base.

For more detailed background information on this project, please read "Kilmer Shrines", my May 2008 thesis paper for Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts' MFA program. [Download PDF]

To sign up for a tour, contact Anne at annepercoco@yahoo.com. Full-length walking tours are at least two hours long and depart from the Livingston Arts Building of Rutgers University [directions]. Please wear shoes and clothing appropriate to walking the woods.

Anne Percoco, Jan. 2010
www.annepercoco.com