CSA Affiliated Artist, Ruth Wallen showcases her piece “Daylight Escondido Creek Watershed” for the exhibition “DesEscondido: No Longer Hidden, Public Address” at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido on now till November 18th, 2018.
CSA Affiliated Artist, Ruth Wallen showcases her piece “Daylight Escondido Creek Watershed” for the exhibition “DesEscondido: No Longer Hidden, Public Address” at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido on now till November 18th, 2018.
Ruth Wallen, “Daylighting Escondido Creek Watershed”
Currently much of Escondido Creek is hidden behind chain link fences and the original creek bed is obscured by a cement channel. What happens when a community turns its back on its waters? “Daylighting Escondido Creek Watershed,” is intended to help create a watershed moment, a shift in thinking where interrelationships are recognized and the well-being of all life prioritized, by encouraging dialogue around what has been hidden—the wonders of the watershed, its changing ecology due to urbanization, globalization (in the form of changing economies and introduced species) and a warming climate, and visions for maintaining and rejuvenating the watershed’s future health.
The installation includes both two and three-dimensional elements. On the walls are photographs of the channelized creek and large photomontages of the trees that line its banks, and Elfin Forest chaparral throughout the seasons. The montages combine a series of glimpses, dynamic views taken from differing perspectives and scales.
“Pushing Up Daises,” Memorial Pollinator Garden to Dying Trees: Garden employs hugelkultur to compost logs of dead trees to create fertilizer and hold moisture for new life by Nina Karavasiles and Ruth Wallen July. 2018
On the floor one tree stump bears witness, playing clips from conversations about present challenges and future hopes for the watershed. Another tree stump extends an existing project, “Listen to the Trees”, with diagrams of the tree rings for an oak or sycamore living in Escondido to the year 2099 based on two climate scenarios — the RCP 8.5 or “business as usual,” do-nothing scenario, and the RCP 4.5 “enlightened government”, take-action scenario. Additionally, pressing on a given ring reveals either actions that could contribute to an enlightened government that would lower greenhouse gas emissions, or alternatively under the RCP 8.5. scenario, impacts from a warming climate that are predicted to occur if we take no action.
Check out “DesEscondido: No Longer Hidden, Public Address” and Ruth’s work at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido on now till November 18th, 2018.