The Ballona/Waachanga Project
photography and animation by Halina Kliem and audio recording and mixing by Daniel Rothman
“We are training each other in acts of communication we barely understand. We are, constitutively, companion species.” - Donna Haraway
Our marshlands cleanse the earth, filter out human waste, stabilize the climate, and filter out pollutants, buffering the excesses of floods and droughts.
The environmental project The Ballona/Waachnga Project captures the changing sounds and seasonal flora of the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve, a protected area of 577 acres in Los Angeles County, California, and the land of the Tongva people.
The Ballona/Waachanga wetlands are a wellspring of biodiversity and a major north-south flyway for migratory birds in the Americas, extending from Alaska to Patagonia. Besides the great blue heron and snowy egret, five species of bumblebee and a dozen species of dragonfly live here.
A multipart work by interdisciplinary artist Halina Kliem and sound artist Daniel Rothman will enfold a meditation on time, the politics of land use, and today’s climate crisis.
This project aims to make the beauty and habitats of the Ballona wetlands accessible, help us to understand their relation to melting glaciers and draughts, and learn how valuable wetlands are.
The project is thriving from 2022 - 2025. For Fulcrum Festival 2022, we brought together visual changes of the wetland's flora with its 24-hour soundscape.
Installation view at Fulcrum Festival, Deep Ocean, Deep Space, Los Angeles, September 22 - September 23, Midnight to Midnight at the 18th Street Art Center’s Kitchen Lab.
Sneak-peek of the project for the Bruce Geller Memorial Prize Winners 2022 at the Institute for Jewish Creativity, Los Angeles