Most people look at the Chicago River and see dirty green water and maybe a stray mattress left over from last spring`s leak. Artists look at that same river and see … an art gallery.
Flo Tilla, organized by Dennis Callahan, Luke Dohner and Elise Ferguson, will feature some two dozen pieces of art in various media sharing only one common feature: They have to float.
Last year, entries included origami swans with Styrofoam bellies, and, in a tip of the hat to Chicago`s history of organized crime, a cadaver sculpture so realistic that project curators were stopped by police after someone saw them pulling it out of the river.
Taking a cue from such environmental artists as Christo, Flo Tilla doesn`t allow art that would pollute the water.
Flo Tilla hits the water at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Cortland Avenue Bridge
(one block east of Elston Avenue and two blocks north of North Avenue) and will travel downstream about a half-mile to the North Turning Basin. Free.
