PST 2024:
California Works
La Jolla Historical Society
Urban Ecologies
Urban Ecologies traces the Harrisons’ collaborative practice during the late 1960s-1990s. The wide-ranging ecological artworks, including Making Earth, Survival Pieces, and California Wash, highlight the development and evolution of the Harrisons’ ideas about regenerative agriculture and land reclamation of canyons, rivers, and watersheds in California. The viewers can also explore the Harrisons’ award-winning unrealized eco-urban works, including Horton Plaza, San Diego Round, and Miramar Landfill, in which they proposed ways to restore the natural balance of compromised ecosystems in San Diego.
A special feature of the exhibition is the fully recreated citrus grove conceived and designed in 1972 by artists. LJHS showcases A conversation with Survival Piece #5: Portable Orchard on the museum’s lawn. This project raises the issue about the need for a productive and sustainable food system in an imagined future faced with environmental decline.
MANDEVILLE ART GALLERY AT UC SAN DIEGO
Future Gardens
Future Gardens speaks to the Harrisons’ hope of saving the planet in the face of the crisis posed by climate change and its threat to Earth’s many ecosystems. The viewer is invited to enjoy original drawings, phototext panels, and photographs documenting the Harrisons’ far-reaching and science-based proposals such as Tibet as a High Ground (1990-2016), Garden of Hot Winds and Warm Rains (1995/2003-8), Sagehen: A Proving Ground (2007-ongoing, in the High Sierras near Tahoe), and Future Garden for the Central Coast of California (2018-ongoing, at the Arboretum at UC Santa Cruz).
Through immersive installations, Future Gardens aims to reveal the Harrisons’ concept of Force Majeure and the assisted migration of species among various mitigation strategies that will be needed to be implemented as global warming accelerates and the pressure on planetary systems exponentially continues to increase.
The Prophetic Works
CALIFORNIA CENTER FOR THE ARTS, ESCONDIDO
The Prophetic Works invites the viewer to explore the Harrisons’ complex reflections on climate change and the existing conditions of California’s water systems. Visually stimulating installations such as the Meditation on the Gabrieliños (1976) and the Meditations on the Sacramento River (1976-77) examine natural resource management, moving from the ecological intelligence of native peoples to the development of modern agrobusiness practices. The viewer can also experience the monumental piece, The Lagoon Cycle (1974-84), a complex 360-degree photo mural in 60 parts—on display for the first time since it was acquired in 1997 by the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. As presented through these works, the Harrisons’ research and findings shape an argument for reductions in irrigated farming, advancements in water recycling, and improvements in outreach and public participation when setting water policy. Made several decades ago, these landmark artworks have greater resonance today as we grapple with prolonged droughts, increasingly severe wildfires, and ever more turbulent weather.
SAN DIEGO CENTRAL LIBRARY ART GALLERY
Saving the West
Saving the West invites the visitors to delve deeply into the series of works associated with the Harrisons’ research on the fragile and environmentally threatened ecologies of the Pacific Coast fog forest and the Sierra Nevada mountains that map out a complex ecosystems and watersheds – the focus of their work from the 1990s until 2014. Initiated by the Serpentine Lattice in 1993, the selected series of works shows the Harrisons’ increasing concern with the issue of global climate emergency (a topic the artists first addressed in 1974) and related environmental degradation.
A special feature of the exhibition is Sierra Nevada: An Adaptation, a large-scale aerial map exploring the impact of global warming on the 28,000 square mile mountain range. The visitors are invited to “walk” on the mountain positioned on the floor while also engaging with text and wall panels of watershed maps, drawings, and photographs of current ecosystems facing the threat of mass-extinction.
