Archaea, 2018

Archaea is a permanent site-specific work installed in the bed of Huntington Creek on the grounds of Djerassi Resident Artists Program in Woodside, CA. It is comprised of an arrangement of several hundred pieces of fired clay. The clay was collected from the river banks of San Gregorio Creek where the waters that run through Huntington Creek meet the Pacific Ocean. The work is inspired by archaea, a kingdom of organisms comprising some of the first life forms on earth, which emerged 3.8 billions years ago in the scalding waters of deep sea vents. Capable of living in earth’s most extreme environments, archaea can thrive in anoxic muds, in temperatures over 100°C, and in extremely alkaline or acid conditions. Their invocation offers solace that despite the continuing human disturbance to ecological and climate systems, life will inevitably carry on. As the creek bed transforms the installation will reorder and move incrementally toward the ocean that looms promisingly in the distance.