PIPE DREAMS

Hughen/Starkweather’s current body of work, Pipe Dreams, is comprised of sculptures, paintings, video, and audio that reference landscapes that contain engineered systems that control and distribute water. As water infrastructure is increasingly, inextricably woven into ecosystems, how might these natural and engineered systems fail or succeed together as climate extremes exert unforeseen pressures?

The artists’ begin researching this question by conducting interviews with people from a wide variety of backgrounds including hydrologists, farmers, fishermen, engineers, lawyers, historians, glaciologists, and community members. These interviews lead to additional research into data trajectories, photographs, articles, books, and maps. The resulting abstract artworks layer recognizable forms that reference desertification; failing dams and shrinking reservoirs; drought, flood, fire, smoke, and fog; water as the new gold rush; drilling into ancient aquifers; and slow solutions including water dousing and the reintroduction of natural systems including wetlands and beavers. 

The term Pipe Dreams references illusory hopes and magical thinking, and the work reflects the ambiguities and complexities of the climate crisis. Hughen/Starkweather do not attempt to offer solutions or concrete information, but hope to prompt curiosity, uncertainty, and new perspectives. 

Below are a few works from this series, please contact the artists for additional works or more information.