Watermark

Kaitlin Pomerantz + Naomieh Jovin, 2025

Photographs (NJ), handmade paper (KP), lightboxes installed at WaterShed, Germantown, Philadelphia

Supported by: Waterways Arts Initiative (Phl Water Department, Phl Mural Arts, Academy of Natural Sciences)

Watermark is a collaborative installation by Kaitlin Pomerantz and Naomieh Jovin located at the WaterShed, a community climate resilience hub in Germantown, Philadelphia. The WaterShed was conceived of by founding artists Pomerantz and Jovin, curators Ryan Strand Greenberg and Phoebe Bachman, and the Waterways Initiative team, in consultation with community members.

For Watermark, Pomerantz and Jovin interviewed neighbors impacted by flooding and visited sites of flooding, featured in Jovin’s illuminated wall portraits (Reverend Chester WIlliams and Roz McKelvey) and collage. Pomerantz created handmade flax paper containing watermarked quotes from the interviews and phrases from meeting with the Water Department, Paper is integral to history of Germantown, home to North America’s first papermill and a the birth of an industry that would leave an indelible mark our watersheds. This history is inseparable from the conditions that lead to flooding today. This project aims to shed light on these conditions in pursuit of mitigation, mutual aid, and accountability.

A second component of this project will be installed at the WaterShed in January of 2026.

For ongoing programming– film screenings, community workshops, resource fairs and more— visit the WaterShed.