Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison

Exploring the Relationship Between Ecology and Art in Exhibition Santa Fe Watershed: Lessons from the Genius of Place

December 11, 2004 – January 22, 2005

Opening Lecture with artists Helen and Newton Harrison:
December 11, 3 p.m., Tipton Hall, College of Santa Fe
$5.00/$2.50 seniors and students

Public Opening:
December 11, 5 – 7 p.m., Santa Fe Art Institute

“…Bit by bit we are led to see that in order to restore the flow of water, it is first necessary to heal the earth.” So reads an excerpt from the artists’ statement that accompanies a new exhibition at the Santa Fe Art Institute titled Santa Fe Watershed: Lessons from the Genius of Place. The exhibition, conceived and created by artists Helen and Newton Harrison, opens on December 11, 2004 from 5 – 7 p.m., and is on view through January 22, 2005.

For more than 30 years, the Harrisons have created major works throughout the world that address the multi-layered relationship between art and ecology. Santa Fe Watershed: Lessons from the Genius of Place, a public art project instigated by the Santa Fe Art Institute, is a collaborative effort that presents a complex set of works, which address the dire conditions of the Santa Fe River, and proposes a self-renewing process that involves history, community engagement, public facilities, and a vibrant new life for the river. The Harrisons’ work uses audio, visual, mechanical, and biological materials to create a narrative about place, its ecological and social realities, and to encourage community discourse and involvement.The culmination of over two years of research and work on finding ways to weave the Santa Fe River back into the urban fabric of the community, and bring it back to life, the exhibition at SFAI stimulates opinion and discussion about the final proposal for the river. The exhibition presents large-scale maps of the past, present, and future terrain of the river, video, photographic images, cultural narratives, and personal recollections.

“As artists, we believe that the cultural landscape is formed by a complex narrative…and that every place is telling the story of its own becoming,” explained the Harrisons. “…We see ourselves joining this story of place as part of a long tradition of story tellers using verbal and visual metaphors to create the images, diverse proposals, videos and models in this installation, which together are designed to create images of the possible future landscape of the Santa Fe Watershed.”

Northern New Mexico has long been the subject of culturally diverse concerns about water and land usage. The fabric of this ambitious project weaves together many aspects that have already been developed by landscape architects, ecologists, hydrologists, granting agencies and scientists. A fresh look and a more holistic vision emerge from bringing together these specialists and community members in a dialogue about the future of the river.

Water is key to our future. Unfortunately, our urban water budgets are frequently broken into disconnected pieces that focus on single solutions instead of an integrated system that mimics and cooperatess with the world’s most successful engineer—Nature. What the Harrisons have co-created in tandem with others is a forum for reclamation of the river, and a stimulus for cultural work within the community. Santa Fe Watershed: Lessons from the Genius of Place brings together diverse populations in a massive public art proposal that provides a new synthesis and points to ways in which art can offer a new vision and pathway for thinking about the environment, the city and its people.