in the wake of the santa maria

for audio and imperial core carbon-emission-producing infrastructure (2021-25)

Overview:

in the wake of the santa maria is a work that positions global warming-causing infrastructures (roads, factories, power plants, etc.) within global geographies and long histories of imperialism, through audio interventions in proximity to these infrastructures. The title refers to the santa maria ship taken by Christopher Columbus in 1492. In dialogue with Black and Indigenous studies analytics which narrate the ongoing effects of enslavement and colonization as a wake, the piece positions global warming as a wake of the Columbus threshold-event. The piece marks infrastructures of global warming with audio built from editing audio footage of ocean waves from a “relaxing Caribbean beach” video; read together with the title, this audio alludes concurrently to the wakes of both global-warming-caused rising sea levels and early modern voyages of enslavement and colonization.

video realization, with footage of the Western Pacific Railroad’s (now Union Pacific) Feather River route, in land known colonially as northern California

Photo of realization at Sankofa (formerly Y*nge-D*ndas) Square, Toronto/Tkaronto, Dish with One Spoon Treaty Territory

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A portion of artist fees received in connection with this piece will be donated to Casa Pueblo, focused on grassroots environmental organizing in Puerto Rico (https://casapueblo.org/), and to Tsleil-Waututh Nation Sacred Trust, mandated to stop the proposed Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) tanker and pipeline project (https://twnsacredtrust.ca/what-you-can-do/).