The LA River Project

Soft washes of blue, slate gray, and sand bloom and bleed across white paper like water spreading over a riverbed, and somewhere in the drift a small pale figure floats, held by the current.
On a thick round slab of river concrete stands a slender steel frame of clamps and a small lens, and from it hang strands of beads: rough gray concrete spheres and glowing amber-orange resin, each holding a sliver of the river’s life.
A row of small glass vials with cork stoppers lies in a wooden board, each holding a pinch of leaf, soil, or seed from the river, while pale blue light ripples on the wall behind them like water.
A river of pale blue runs across the page through washes of sand, gold, and grey, while a fine-lined city grid buckles and drifts around it like a map left out in the rain, streets bending to let the water through.
A strand of beads lies across a warm surface, amber resin and pale green glass catching the light, while above them a projected oval of rippling silver light hangs like the surface of a river seen from below.
Title
The LA River Project
Artist
Juniper Harrower
Collaborators
Savannah Hunter Jewelry (necklace collaboration), CALeDNA (research collaboration), Norris Center for Natural History, UC Santa Cruz (specimens)
Date
2022-2025
Short Description
A 14-foot painted riverscape drawn from more than 2,000 environmental DNA experiments and conversations with the river's caretakers, with electron-microscope images of museum specimens woven into a single body of water, willow, and coyote.
Description
The Los Angeles River is one of the most threatened rivers in the United States, much of it confined to a concrete channel in the name of flood control and progress. Juniper Harrower’s LA River Project draws on more than 2,000 environmental DNA experiments and long conversations with people who care for the river, an approach the artist describes as listening more than collecting. Working with museum-held specimens, Harrower took only minimal samples and imaged them under an electron microscope. Those images, gilded and drawn, wind through a 14-foot painted riverscape in which water, willow, and coyote merge into a single body. The work proposes a science practiced in relation to the river rather than through extraction, and gestures toward the rematriation movements of the Gabrielino/Tongva and Tataviam peoples. Two works from the project were shown in the Fifty-Third Annual UC Berkeley Master of Fine Arts Graduate Exhibition at BAMPFA (May 10 – July 23, 2023): the painting Resting and raging through histories of containment, made with Los Angeles River water, watercolor, ink, graphite, California-sourced gold dust, and scanning electron imagery in research collaboration with CALeDNA; and Necklace for a River, a necklace made with Savannah Hunter Jewelry whose beads hold specimens of the river's animals and plants, from red-eared slider turtle and western toad to great blue heron, red willow, and Pacific salmon, strung with Los Angeles River concrete and steel beads used in DNA extraction. The necklace specimens were ethically sourced from the Norris Center for Natural History at UC Santa Cruz, with support from OpenLab and the UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute.
Artwork Type
Installation
Painting / Drawing
Sculpture
Materiality
Digital / Electronic Media
Metal
Paint
Climate & Ecology Themes
Biodiversity and Species Loss
Urban Landscapes and Infrastructures
Water and Drought
Concepts
Care and Reciprocity
Colonialism and Decolonization
More-than-Human Relations
Ecological Domain / Habitat
River / Stream
Methods & Approaches
Art and Science Collaboration
Collaborative / Co-Creation
Audience / Engagement Type
Public / General Audience
Location
Los Angeles, California, USA
Geographic Scope
City / Municipality
Rights
Rights held by artist or creator
Website
https://www.juniperharrower.com/la-river-project
Affiliated Organizations
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Item sets
California Art & Climate Archive
UC Berkeley
Media
Soft washes of blue, slate gray, and sand bloom and bleed across white paper like water spreading over a riverbed, and somewhere in the drift a small pale figure floats, held by the current.Juniper Harrower, The LA River Project 1
On a thick round slab of river concrete stands a slender steel frame of clamps and a small lens, and from it hang strands of beads: rough gray concrete spheres and glowing amber-orange resin, each holding a sliver of the river’s life.Juniper Harrower, The LA River Project 2
A row of small glass vials with cork stoppers lies in a wooden board, each holding a pinch of leaf, soil, or seed from the river, while pale blue light ripples on the wall behind them like water.Juniper Harrower, The LA River Project 3
A river of pale blue runs across the page through washes of sand, gold, and grey, while a fine-lined city grid buckles and drifts around it like a map left out in the rain, streets bending to let the water through.Juniper Harrower, The LA River Project 4
A strand of beads lies across a warm surface, amber resin and pale green glass catching the light, while above them a projected oval of rippling silver light hangs like the surface of a river seen from below.Juniper Harrower, The LA River Project 5