As a species, we continually manipulate our ecosystems with considerable perseverance and effort to create the desired state in which we want to live. Today, just as in the past, we’ve used every form of technology at our disposal to coax waters to sustain a particular way of life. Some of these ideas, such as tugging icebergs to southern California or siphoning water from the Columbia to the Southwest, have just been pipe dreams. But others, as demonstrated by this installation, have been attempted: these include cloud seeding and sealing the ground with wax to accelerate runoff for human consumption.  

The artificial enclaves built in the Southwest have had tremendous consequences for specific cultures, communities, and ecosystems on both ends of the available watersheds. Los Angeles made the Owens Valley into a desert by stealing its water. Phoenix got help from drowning Glen Canyon, and then for years siphoned the ancient springs of the Hopi for its consumption.  

In Flagstaff, we see selfish desires being played out on a landscape of spirituality, the sacred San Francisco Peaks. Some want to pipe reclaimed effluent wastewater back up onto the peaks to make artificial snow for winter recreation. Our waste will, over time, enter the bodies of other creatures: frogs, toads, and salamanders.

Fait accompli, for us and for them, or are we willing to change our lifestyle? Are we willing to rethink our cleverness, our strategies and consider the whole?  

*Coaxing the Waters was the culminative final project for students in my Topics in Art: Site-Specific Installation Art – Water in the Southwest class to construct. The students included: Sarah Allison, Kelsey Booth, Aileen Clark, Erica Dammon, Brianna Fristoe, Holly Gardner, Craig Goodworth, Ty Miller, Jennifer Nakoa, Christyn Overstake, Leancy Rupert, Meg Schreiber, and Robin Stephen.