PIPE DREAMS

Hughen/Starkweather’s current series Pipe Dreams references illusory hopes and magical thinking about the availability of freshwater. Water is the essential element for the health and prosperity of municipalities, agriculture, and ecosystems. It is increasingly a key ingredient in manufacturing and powering new technologies. Human histories and futures depend on the engineering and tools necessary to find and manage freshwater. The series Pipe Dreams is comprised of sculptures, paintings, and video that reference the control and extraction of this limited and fragile resource. As human infrastructures are inextricably woven into freshwater ecosystems, how might these systems fail or succeed together as climate extremes exert unforeseen pressures?

The artists’ begin researching this question by conducting interviews with people from a wide variety of backgrounds including hydrologists, farmers, fishermen, engineers, lawyers, historians, glaciologists, and others. These interviews lead to site visits and additional research by the artists, who also collect materials from the sites they visit including water from rivers and bays, ash from wildfires, sand from deserts/beaches, salt, borax, and dirt, and use those materials directly in the artworks. The resulting works layer past, present and future through recognizable and abstract forms, reflecting the ambiguities and complexities of our time, while offering glimpses of hope and beauty. 

Shown here is a selection of works from this series. Please contact the artists for additional works and more information.