Hughen/Starkweather

For nearly 20 years, Hughen/Starkweather—the collaboration of visual artists Jennifer Starkweather and Amanda Hughen—has explored engineered infrastructures woven into the landscape as humans attempt to control water. As climate, development, manufacturing, and technology exert unforeseen pressures on increasingly fragile ecosystems, the artists aim to re-center water as a precious and limited resource and to raise awareness of its uncertain future. Central to their process is a research-based approach that begins with conversations with scientists and community members. The artwork Tidal flats / Marshlands / Infill (Bay Shoreline) references the histories and possible futures of the shifting shoreline of San Francisco Bay from marsh to concrete and restored to marsh. The solid shapes in the work map the concrete infill along the edge of the Bay.