The L.A. River is one of the most threatened rivers in the country, its life tunneled into concrete by an idea of progress that mistook control for knowledge. I built this project from over 2,000 environmental DNA experiments and long conversation with the river's guardians, listening more than collecting, borrowing only what the river's museum-held specimens were willing to give. Gilded and drawn out under electron microscopy, their traces meander through a 14-foot painted riverscape until water, willow, and coyote read as one body: a science practiced in relation rather than extraction, and a gesture toward the rematriation movements of the Gabrielino/Tongva and Tataviam peoples.​

 

Read my essay on this work published as a special invite section on Hydrocolonialism for the journal Advances in Global Health.​​​

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Many thanks to supporters/collaborators at: the UC Berkeley Art Department for valuable R&D support; CALeDNA program for eDNA data; Rachel Myer's lab at UC Santa Cruz for community building workshops; Norris Center for Natural History for the necklace specimens and funding; Savannah Hunter for jewelry collaboration; and the UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute and OpenLab for funding support!