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New Exhibit On Display In Manayunk Draws Attention To The Canal

By Pat Loeb

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - An unusual, interactive art work goes on display, this weekend, on the canal path boardwalk in Manayunk. The work introduces an element of whimsy to the canal's industrial history.

Artists Lucy Begg and Robert Gay spent a week assembling the intricate weave of metal and PVC pipe that, Begg says, they call "escaped infrastructure".

"There are a lot of pipes and tubes and rails along the canal and our concept was the idea of some infrastructure breaking loose and rising up out of the boardwalk and then pulling water up out of the boardwalk."

The pipes attach to a water pump hidden under the boardwalk and activated by censors triggered by passersby.

"Hopefully as you walk along the water will follow you."

The Manayunk Development Corporation commissioned the work to draw attention to recreational possibilities of the canal, but it will only be up for six weeks. Begg says that's okay.

"Temporary ones are fun, they're fast and quick and they generate a lot of energy, then they're gone again."

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