As Above, So Below

An immersive installation at the shore of the Salton Sea created for the 2019 Bombay Beach Biennale

In a desert, all waters are holy.

Twenty-four gallons of Pacific ocean water were collected and transported to the Salton Sea in southern California, a body of water unfolding over 340 square miles of desert, 130 miles east of San Diego and 40 miles north of the US-Mexico border. Here the Pacific Ocean water was used to fill twelve recycled satellite dishes which sat at the shore of the Salton Sea for the three day duration of the Biennale.

An ocean beyond time, this is a place that I love. The act of carrying water (by hand, by wheels, over land), was an act of making an offering. One body of water to another. As much a metaphor for the shrinking sea itself, these transient pools of ocean water remind us of the continuity between oceans, rivers, seas, lakes - all water systems - and ourselves.

Tune in, tune out. The symbology of the satellite dishes is simple - what do we listen to, where do we turn our attention? These waters speak of the health of the larger ecosystem in which we all exist. As above, so below reminds us to attend to the unheard, the deep and the quiet, as it cycles both within and outside ourselves.