The Owens Lake Studio

Wrestle with the earth forever
Botanists, satellites, and politicians
Dig, dry, destroy
The butterfly effect
Uncanny playspace
Turbine testing and wind on demand
Fluid dynamic domestication
So, is it beautiful?
Monitoring, monitoring, monitoring...
Moving the [atmospheric] river




Exhibition
Curatorial Conversation
Gallery
About



 Dig, dry, destroy

One cannot understand what Owens Lake is today without understanding what is below the surface and in its past. Through a rare combination of geologic and geographic factors, Owens Lake possesses a special natural presence. Unfortunately, its story is primarily one of pillage for the greed of elsewhere. Since the moment he had the technology to do so, man has been mining, refining, and hauling away the many natural bounties of this remote place. 

Through increasingly aggressive production, we mankind have created a tangible toxicity in the immediate area and many hundreds of miles downwind. Yet, as evidence of these hazards mounts and sickens us further and further, we show few signs of meaningfully adjusting our practices. 

What do we do with the information that something we value also hurts us? As with the aqueduct that drained the lake, how much of one thing will we destroy in order to gain something else? 

Too often, we think that we can solve as we go, or that some later generation will deal with the fallout. In 2001, after 90 years of unabated dust pollution, the LADWP was legally compelled to return to Owens Lake and manage the dust. At a taxpayer cost exceeding $100 million per year,  airborne particle levels have dramatically dropped. Yet the plan is for the control work to go on forever, or else the dust will return. 

Meanwhile, the state still awards new contracts for mining and further damaging extraction. At least it helps pay for the dust control.




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