The collapse is complete in May 2024. Warning signs warn visitors not to touch the sea, the foam, the algae, or the mud due to extreme toxicity. Swimming, drinking, washing, or handling is prohibited. Fishing is prohibited. There are no birds. The air is painful to breathe. Lithium mining has begun, causing the sea to recede at a rapid rate which exposes the toxic-coated bottom to wind storms, creating a major air pollution hazard. The Salton Sea mud contains enough arsenic, selenium, and DDT to qualify for disposal in a dump reserved for the most toxic of society’s trash.
Ecocide for Profit: Salton Sea, May 2024.
In process:
2023, I returned to the Salton Sea and my heart broke as I took in the reality of its complete collapse. This work is title, Ecocide: Salton Sea, cyanotype on muslin, made with the toxic waste that murdered this beautiful ecosystem, 6×6 feet, October 2023.
Artwork in progress at the Salton Sea; dead zone algae, toxic waste, human activities in its watershed. October 2023.
Requiem for the Salton Sea, (50) 6×6″ cyanotype prints on paper were co-created with the Salton Sea as it communicated its experience of the Anthropocene. The pieces are mounted on an earth-based plastered board using earth magnets to hold them in place, 30×60”, 2019-20.
(1) 72×44″ cyanotype print on silk created by draping the material over car tires recently exposed as the shoreline receded. Parts of the silk mixed with damp dead zone algae, 2019.
The process was a memorial. The completed work, a requiem. Me, a
Funeral conductor.
Background world: The Salton Sea is a saline lake located in the southeastern desert of California. This ecosystem is home to five endangered species, numerous sensitive species and literally millions of migrating and wintering water birds. Due to the significant loss of wetlands in California, this ecosystem is one of the most important for birds flying the Pacific Flyway and supports some of the highest levels of biodiversity. It is now in its hospice stage due to increasing salinity, water quality issues, temperature, and eutrophication resulting in increased algae and bacteria known as dead zones. As I write this only two species of fish remain and I am informed by a local ranger that they will die off before the end of the year. The collapse of the ecosystem means extinction for a number of species. In October 2019 Imperial County declared the Salton Sea a state of emergency and major public health crisis.
To be with this extraordinary landscape is as surreal as it is heartbreaking. My time hear is filled with wonder at the radiant beauty that defies the human impact that created this catastrophe. Beauty is truly a warrior defeating disparity and opening space for the final transformation into formlessness and memory. I feel love, grief, loss, and the presence of the miraculous. The entire shoreline is made of death. I stand on bones both beautiful and filled with the memories of lives lived migratory and transient.
“A shrinking Salton Sea could expose its toxic-coated bottom to wind storms, posing a major air pollution hazard… Salton Sea mud contains enough arsenic and selenium to qualify for disposal in a dump reserved for the most toxic of society’s trash.
Requiem for the Salton Sea…The End
2020, Requiem for the Salton Sea…The End, black and white photographs taken with a Holga 120N, developed in Caffenol, fixed in Sea Salt, printed as postcards, and mailed to galleries to spread the message.
Background world: Returning to the Salton Sea one year later, I found the ecosystem had indeed collapsed. It was no longer in its hospice stage. It was sad and deserted…empty of birds, fish, and life. The shoreline had receded significantly since my last visit, revealing hundreds of car tires that had been dumped into the sea long ago. The toxic dust lifted effortlessly into the air. My nose began to bleed a half hour after my arrival. This is the legacy we leave in our wake, 100 tons of toxic dust per day lifted into the air forever.
“Salton Sea mud contains enough arsenic and selenium to qualify for disposal in a dump reserved for the most toxic of society’s trash. Chromium, zinc, lead and pesticides, including DDT, are also in the lake bottom.“
