Finding Water

2023

Desert Plants, Fabric and String.

Dimensions Variable,

Made in Coyo, Chile

Finding Water is a series of works made in the Atacama Desert that focuses on the way that the trees in the desert form large root systems to access subterranean water. The Chilean salt flats (Salar de Atacama) form an endorheic basin, namely one in which there is no external outflow of water to the oceans, and which has an extensive reservoir network of subterranean rivers. The water in the desert never dries up because it does not depend on rain or inflow from elsewhere. Finding Water considers the adaptive way that the trees in the desert form large root systems to access subterranean water. The forms within the sculpture also reference the water networks below the volcanic soils of the Atacama.

Images of the Salar de Atacama, Chile.