Page 50 - Studio International - May 1974

Lagoon
Lagoon as an art formation proposes growth and
nurture of a system subset that will reproduce
itself in a variety of contexts. Aspects of it exist
as a film called Meditations on the Crab, as a
rather complex environmental underwater
report called the Book on Crabs and in sundry
site drawings, several articles, and in the work
on the prior pages called Sea Grant.' It exists
indoors (see First Territory), it is halfway into
existence outdoors (see Hartley's Lagoon), and I
have begun research on a site on the Salton Sea
near the Great American Canal.
Between 1905 and 1907 due to flooding of the
Gila River and a break in the heading leading
to the All American Canal, the Colorado River
discharged into the northern part of the
Imperial Valley and formed a lake 34 miles long
and 9 to 15 miles wide known as the Salton Sea.
The water, made eutropic from the salts left by
the irrigation drain-off from nearby farms is more
salty than sea water and of slightly different
composition. It is bounded on the north side by
the All American Canal that passes within five
miles of the Salton Sea at the point circled on
the map entitled 'Lagoon: Third Territory'.
Lagoon grows in efficiency as it grows in size
and the form reassumes direct relationship to
the environment. I wish to mix Salton Sea water
and Colorado River water in volume; I wish to
create a situation that behaves like an estuarial
lagoon near the equator.
In exploring the idea of generating a self-
sufficient system like the brine shrimp piece, the
problems of how much is enough emerges. In
the shrimp piece the sun supplied the energy,
the water became the medium.and the role of
labour was to harvest the excess and care for the
processes. Art reverberated through the system.
Most eco-systems require more elaborate life
chain interaction, are more fragile at certain
points and require size and complexity to
sustain themselves. Lagoon in its Third Territory
will re-approach these problems from points of
complexity — among them polyculture and
recycling of wastes, community and labour.
Out of the complexity of the art formation,
out of the difficulties of resolving the breeding
cycle of the crab Scylla Serrata and other
mullusca and crustacea in order to establish a
viable population for Lagoon in its Third
Territory, out of the many technologies
involved, a larger team will have to emerge.
Lagoon in its largest format presupposes a
community to make it work just as in its smallest
configuration (see territory in my studio), it
requires a team of Helen and myself and
assistants to make it work. It recreates us while
we create it, since being an incomplete system,
we must supply what nature does not. When
this supplying is done with awareness, our
behaviour alters to become a metaphor for
nature. I believe this would be as true for any
community.
Arts Magazine, March 1973, Jack Burnham
`Contemporary Ritual : A Search for Meaning in
Post-Historical Terms'; Art in America, January 1974,
`Three Projects: Harrison, Mock and McGowan'.
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