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.