This website presents the field research, creative production and dissemination of my Masters of Fine Art thesis within and about the borderlands region of the Colorado River delta in the states of Baja and Sonora, Mexico. Throughout 2017-2018 I visited the region for three research trips in order to gather a sense of place, meet and interview local communities and environmental leaders, complete a journey through the delta, and document the region. I ultimately built a canoe out of paper mache to use as an investigative tool and symbolic performance for the Colorado River delta. My thesis exhibition, entitled pulse flow, was presented at the Albuquerque Open Space Visitor Center Gallery in April 2018 and included a multi-media art installation of works on paper, sculpture, and video.
I used to think of a river as a continuous line. On maps a river looks like a demarcation. A route. A way to meander from one place to another. I used to think that if I followed the Colorado River I would arrive at the ocean.
It was last February that I first found myself crossing the border into Mexico to see where the Colorado River ends. I had lived within the Colorado River basin for years, upstream from the delta, along the Rocky Mountains where the ground is more often covered with snow than not. Miles downstream, the same river runs dry. Cracks split the ground, like mouths open, waiting to drink. It feels as if time is resting there, as if the Sea of Cortez is waiting for the Colorado River to reach it again.
The delta once functioned as an estuary where fresh water met the salty ocean tides in middle of the Sonoran Desert. An estuary is an ecotone, a transitionary place between two ecosystems; anything but a border. Within is a constant mixing of freshwater and saltwater. A fragile, yet productive collaboration of water, nutrients, and sediment. What does it mean when an ecosystem that is a metaphor for exchange and creativity ceases to endure due to human greed?
On maps the Colorado River is a continuous line that flows freely for 1,450 miles from its headwaters in the Colorado Rockies, across the arid southwest, to its mouth at the Sea of Cortez. It once was the livelihood of numerous Indigenous tribes including the Chemehuevi, Mohave, Hopi, and Navajo tribes, which still live along the river, and the Cucapá Tribe in the delta. Since westward expansion in the 1800's, every drop of Colorado River water, in fact more than every drop of Colorado River water, has been allocated.
As one of the most controlled and litigated rivers in the world, the modern Colorado River supports the needs of over 30 to 40 million people. The engineering and development of the river for irrigation, electricity, and industrial and municipal diversions have dramatically decreased water flows and increased revenue. Additionally, climate change has altered snowmelt supply. By the time the Colorado River reaches its delta at the US-Mexico border, all of its supply is diverted. What water does flow through the delta is made up of agricultural discharge and effluent from Mexicali, an example of how a complex socio-economic borderlands region is subject to environmental injustices.
The delta is not a place to pity though. Mexican communities, NGO's, activists, policy makers, and governments organized an unprecedented binational collaboration with their northern neighbors. Mexico and United States agreed to dedicate surplus water flows for environmental restoration in the delta. In 2014 a “pulse flow" of water was discharged to mimic historic spring floods in the delta south of the US-Mexico border. The temporary flooding was a social spectacle and environmental experiment. It brought locals, from the nearby city San Luis Rio Colorado (named after the Colorado River itself) to a riverbed that they hadn't seen filled with water for generations. The goals of the "pulse flow” were to recharge groundwater, boost plant growth, and disperse seedlings whilst supporting local community engagement in restoration, recreation, and tourism.
My urgency to celebrate the “pulse flow" and unfold knowledge and power surrounding water resources in the delta is emphasized through performative field research in place, dialogue with local community members, and the presentation of maps as layered, fluid, and permeable. I reference the history between cartography and printmaking in order to reject maps as static compositions and present them as objects as dynamic at the Colorado River delta itself. Art that reveals process as a constant metamorphosis of fragmentation, transformation, and materialization.
I still think of river as a line. A dashed line though. With breaks in-between the flows. A constituted flood. A pulse, a rhythm, a cadence. How do anthropogenic interventions to and perceptions of a river flood within and in-between the lines that the Colorado River once etched? The work in pulse flow proposes that the modern route of the Colorado River through the delta is a meshwork of multiple narratives: voices, histories, people, politics, plants, and animals that inhabit a place.
I used to think of a river as a continuous line. On maps a river looks like a demarcation. A route. A way to meander from one place to another. I used to think that if I followed the Colorado River I would arrive at the ocean.
It was last February that I first found myself crossing the border into Mexico to see where the Colorado River ends. I had lived within the Colorado River basin for years, upstream from the delta, along the Rocky Mountains where the ground is more often covered with snow than not. Miles downstream, the same river runs dry. Cracks split the ground, like mouths open, waiting to drink. It feels as if time is resting there, as if the Sea of Cortez is waiting for the Colorado River to reach it again.
The delta once functioned as an estuary where fresh water met the salty ocean tides in middle of the Sonoran Desert. An estuary is an ecotone, a transitionary place between two ecosystems; anything but a border. Within is a constant mixing of freshwater and saltwater. A fragile, yet productive collaboration of water, nutrients, and sediment. What does it mean when an ecosystem that is a metaphor for exchange and creativity ceases to endure due to human greed?
On maps the Colorado River is a continuous line that flows freely for 1,450 miles from its headwaters in the Colorado Rockies, across the arid southwest, to its mouth at the Sea of Cortez. It once was the livelihood of numerous Indigenous tribes including the Chemehuevi, Mohave, Hopi, and Navajo tribes, which still live along the river, and the Cucapá Tribe in the delta. Since westward expansion in the 1800's, every drop of Colorado River water, in fact more than every drop of Colorado River water, has been allocated.
As one of the most controlled and litigated rivers in the world, the modern Colorado River supports the needs of over 30 to 40 million people. The engineering and development of the river for irrigation, electricity, and industrial and municipal diversions have dramatically decreased water flows and increased revenue. Additionally, climate change has altered snowmelt supply. By the time the Colorado River reaches its delta at the US-Mexico border, all of its supply is diverted. What water does flow through the delta is made up of agricultural discharge and effluent from Mexicali, an example of how a complex socio-economic borderlands region is subject to environmental injustices.
The delta is not a place to pity though. Mexican communities, NGO's, activists, policy makers, and governments organized an unprecedented binational collaboration with their northern neighbors. Mexico and United States agreed to dedicate surplus water flows for environmental restoration in the delta. In 2014 a “pulse flow" of water was discharged to mimic historic spring floods in the delta south of the US-Mexico border. The temporary flooding was a social spectacle and environmental experiment. It brought locals, from the nearby city San Luis Rio Colorado (named after the Colorado River itself) to a riverbed that they hadn't seen filled with water for generations. The goals of the "pulse flow” were to recharge groundwater, boost plant growth, and disperse seedlings whilst supporting local community engagement in restoration, recreation, and tourism.
My urgency to celebrate the “pulse flow" and unfold knowledge and power surrounding water resources in the delta is emphasized through performative field research in place, dialogue with local community members, and the presentation of maps as layered, fluid, and permeable. I reference the history between cartography and printmaking in order to reject maps as static compositions and present them as objects as dynamic at the Colorado River delta itself. Art that reveals process as a constant metamorphosis of fragmentation, transformation, and materialization.
I still think of river as a line. A dashed line though. With breaks in-between the flows. A constituted flood. A pulse, a rhythm, a cadence. How do anthropogenic interventions to and perceptions of a river flood within and in-between the lines that the Colorado River once etched? The work in pulse flow proposes that the modern route of the Colorado River through the delta is a meshwork of multiple narratives: voices, histories, people, politics, plants, and animals that inhabit a place.
Below is a photograph of a mural outside the Cucapá School in Cucapá Mayor, once of the last Indigenous villages in the delta. The blue line extending to the right shows an incredibly long, manufactured tributary from the Colorado River. It flows towards New Mexico. The students are depicting the San Juan Chama Diversion project, which allows Albuquerque and Santa Fe to drink water from the Colorado River basin so that New Mexico can restore its dwindling aquifer supplies. As the Rio Grande floods through our backyard, though as small as it may be, remember that the delta an entire watershed over, receives ramifications. When it comes to environmental revitalization and restoration we must continue to ask "Who benefits?"
To see more of my work visit: www.hollislmoore.com
Listed below is an ongoing compilation of articles and books about the Colorado River Delta:
The Colorado Delta, Godfrey Sykes
Water is for Fighting Over and Other Myths about Water in the West, John Fleck
ARID Journal
The Sonoran Institute
Raise the River
National Geographic: Saving the Colorado River
It takes more than water: Restoring the Colorado River Delta
The Lagoon Cycle, Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison
Pulse flow was supported by the Land Arts of the American West International Travel Grant through the Lannan Foundation and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. I couldn’t have completed the project without the support and love from my family and friends, as well as the generous contribution of time, knowledge, and skills from many people. I am very grateful for my graduate committee including Ellen Babcock, Subhankar Banerjee, Jeanette Hart-Mann, Ray Hernández-Durán, and Matthew Rangel who helped guide me through the project. Thank you to my travel and translation companions with whom I share many memories with: Leslie Moore, Rachel Zollinger, and Ariel Wilson. A special thanks to my partner, Ben Schoenburg, who learned how to build a canoe alongside me and with whom I collaborated with on the extended journey in the delta to conduct interviews and execute the bike and paddle journey. Alejandra Calvo-Fonseca and Juan Butrón-Mendez from the Mexican non-profit Pronatura Noroeste took me to various restoration sites within the delta and provided a lot of useful information. The Sonoran Institute made the journey possible through logistical coordination and provoking ideas from Gabriela González, Eduardo Blancas, Sandra Ortiz, Dzoara Rubio, and Guadalupe Fonseca, Edith Santiago, Tomás Rivas, and Rabí Hernandez. Antonia Torres Gonzalez welcomed Ben and I to the Museo Comunitario Cucapá many times and generously spoke for the Cucapá tribe. Don Thousand and Gustavo poured over google maps with us to create our biking routes. Steve Nelson shared a tremendous amount of research, maps, and knowledge with me and led the paddle journey from the Rio Hardy to the Upper Gulf. Arnie Schoeck was a delightful one-man support team. John Fleck, director of the UNM Water Resources program and author of Water is for Fighting Over and other Myths about Water in the West shared his personal photographs, and memories of the 2014 Pulse Flow with me. Alpacka Raft sponsored the journey with a back-up inflatable raft which we owe our lives to. Lastly, to the many friends who helped with the construction of the canoe, or simply helped maneuver it on and off my car on multiple occasions.
Listed below is an ongoing compilation of articles and books about the Colorado River Delta:
The Colorado Delta, Godfrey Sykes
Water is for Fighting Over and Other Myths about Water in the West, John Fleck
ARID Journal
The Sonoran Institute
Raise the River
National Geographic: Saving the Colorado River
It takes more than water: Restoring the Colorado River Delta
The Lagoon Cycle, Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison
Pulse flow was supported by the Land Arts of the American West International Travel Grant through the Lannan Foundation and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. I couldn’t have completed the project without the support and love from my family and friends, as well as the generous contribution of time, knowledge, and skills from many people. I am very grateful for my graduate committee including Ellen Babcock, Subhankar Banerjee, Jeanette Hart-Mann, Ray Hernández-Durán, and Matthew Rangel who helped guide me through the project. Thank you to my travel and translation companions with whom I share many memories with: Leslie Moore, Rachel Zollinger, and Ariel Wilson. A special thanks to my partner, Ben Schoenburg, who learned how to build a canoe alongside me and with whom I collaborated with on the extended journey in the delta to conduct interviews and execute the bike and paddle journey. Alejandra Calvo-Fonseca and Juan Butrón-Mendez from the Mexican non-profit Pronatura Noroeste took me to various restoration sites within the delta and provided a lot of useful information. The Sonoran Institute made the journey possible through logistical coordination and provoking ideas from Gabriela González, Eduardo Blancas, Sandra Ortiz, Dzoara Rubio, and Guadalupe Fonseca, Edith Santiago, Tomás Rivas, and Rabí Hernandez. Antonia Torres Gonzalez welcomed Ben and I to the Museo Comunitario Cucapá many times and generously spoke for the Cucapá tribe. Don Thousand and Gustavo poured over google maps with us to create our biking routes. Steve Nelson shared a tremendous amount of research, maps, and knowledge with me and led the paddle journey from the Rio Hardy to the Upper Gulf. Arnie Schoeck was a delightful one-man support team. John Fleck, director of the UNM Water Resources program and author of Water is for Fighting Over and other Myths about Water in the West shared his personal photographs, and memories of the 2014 Pulse Flow with me. Alpacka Raft sponsored the journey with a back-up inflatable raft which we owe our lives to. Lastly, to the many friends who helped with the construction of the canoe, or simply helped maneuver it on and off my car on multiple occasions.