in the wake of the Santa Maria

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

Overview:

This piece situates present-day fossil-fuel-burning infrastructures within imperial geographies of global warming, and positions these geographies within long histories of imperialism and enslavement. Entitled in the wake of the Santa Maria, in reference to one of the ships sailed by Christopher Columbus in 1492, the piece maps global warming decolonially through a sonic-linguistic intervention. The work places found, edited audio of ocean waves—purportedly recorded on a Caribbean beach—within earshot of fossil-fuel-burning infrastructures in the imperial core, such as roads, factories, and power plants. Notated as a textual score, the piece may be realized as an installation, with audio played through speakers placed in proximity to these infrastructures. The piece may also be realized as a video, with the audio layered over found footage of fossil-fuel-burning infrastructures.

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/).