After the Aqueduct features diverse projects by artists, designers and students investigating the Los Angeles Aqueduct—a controversial 233 mile-long hydraulic water conveyance system that has historically been the primary source of potable water for the City of Los Angeles since the aqueduct was first put into service in 1913.
The fates of urban Los Angeles and rural Owens Valley—where the water originates—are explicitly linked together through a contentious past and yet to be determined future. After the Aqueduct envisions the recent centenary of Big Water in the western United States as an opportunity for the various stakeholders, including Los Angeles area city dwellers, rural residents and tribal members of the Owens Valley along with engineers, farmers, scientists, historians, activists, artists, and designers to reexamine water practices and policies that link these shared destinies while considering alternative visions for renegotiating a shared future.
Participating artists include Nicole Antebi, Lauren Bon, Barry Lehrman, Chad Ress, Peter Bo Rappmund, Alexander Robinson and Kim Stringfellow. Student projects from Cal Poly’s Aqueduct Futures program are featured in this exhibit curated by Kim Stringfellow.
After the Aqueduct will be on display at LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) in Hollywood, California from March 4 – April 12, 2015.
Opening reception at LACE (free to public):
Wednesday, March 4, 2015, 7 to 9 pm
Panel discussion at LACE (free to public):
Saturday, March 14, 2015, 2 – 4 pm
Jon Christensen (editor, Boom: A Journal of California and adjunct assistant professor Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, UCLA) will moderate a panel discussion with exhibiting artists along with special guest Alan Bacock (Big Pine Tribal member and Big Pine Paiute Tribe of the Owens Valley’s Water Program Coordinator).
For more information and for participant bios please visit the project website at: aftertheaqueduct.org.
Image: © Chad Ress 2014-15.