Jane Wolff and the California Delta
A unique look at the California Delta Region
In the CLUI Los Angeles Exhibit Hall - November 19 - December 19, 2004
The California Delta is the major source of water for Los Angeles and the largest tidal estuary on the West Coast. It is critical to the economy and ecology of the whole state, and its future is likely to be decided through a public process. Delta Primer presents the landscape's dilemmas in ways that are accessible to broad audiences; its goal is to put information in the hands of the people who will decide the region's future.
From the exhibit:
The landscapes we inhabit exist not only as physical realities but also as ideas, and the ways in which we imagine, describe, and represent them have a powerful impact on our plans for their future.
The way people see landscapes is especially important in places like the California Delta, where there is enormous pressure for change and fierce debate about what form it should take. The Delta is a hybrid landscape: its strange geography is the result of unpredictable interactions between natural process and cultural intervention; it plays a central role in California’s economy and ecology; and its continued existence demands intense human management.
One of the greatest threats to the Delta is its invisibility. Although it is the largest tidal estuary on the West Coast and the centerpiece of the system that supplies water to Southern California, few people know about it, and even fewer can understand the technical terms in which it is usually discussed.
Delta Primer is designed to raise grassroots consciousness about the Delta and its essential part in the lives of all Californians. It describes the landscape in terms of four ideas: that it is a garden, a machine, a wilderness, and a toy. Each idea is illustrated by drawings of artifacts, practices, and processes that are related to specific places in the Delta. The maps of those places make a puzzle of the region, and the drawings comprise a standard deck of playing cards. Any game in which the deck is used can become a discussion about the particular circumstances of the Delta, their relative values, and their possible tradeoffs. The project also includes photographs, a brief history, and a dictionary. Its goal is to put information quite literally into the hands of the people who depend on this remarkable place and who will, sooner or later, be asked to vote on its future.
Read the newsletter article about this exhibit
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