Title: "The River of Migration" 2010.
LInk to Video: http://vimeo.com/16113996

4.53 min
Edition of 5

{ Still images from video }

The River of Migration is a permanent Light and Land Works installation located at Life is Art Foundation West, Santa Rosa, California October 2010. It was created for the inaugural exhibition of the land art foundation.

The video piece examines the chiaruscuro and notion of artificial light in relation to natural light, as sunset turns into dusk and finally nightfall. The formation of the artificial light river displays a gradual emerging sequence of representations of migrants.

I have used the simplicity of natural sounds in nature as the backdrop, where crickets and birds vocally arise as dusk darkens. The 72 solarpanel lights contour the landscape with two strings of light lines following the natural terrain, creating a river of light.

The piece also refers to migratory behaviour patterns and economical-political issues regarding illegal immigration and violent deaths surrounding failure of border crossing.
Specifically, each light in the installation represents one of the 72 individuals who were murdered in Mexico in 2010 during a drug cartel massacre that killed the 72 Central and South American migrants when refusing to smuggle drugs across the US boarder. The piece serves as a memorial to those murdered and who continue to be murdered as a result of the ongoing drug wars and border situation.