The Walkers (2022)
One Channel Video Installation, part of a Two Channel Video Installation series
Made in collaboration with Laura Meng
Shown at the University of Southern California Wrigley Marine Science Center
Catalina Island, CA, United States
April 9, 2022
Part of a looping animated projection series presented with Laura Meng’s Kelp Forest.
The Walkers and Kelp Forest acknowledge both the history of the land and the historical scientific leaps that happen on it respectively. This is done through the portrayal of two types of human movement: swimming and walking. The installation series explores how people have moved through and with “Catalina Island”*.
* “Catalina Island” was called Pimuu'nga by the Tongva people
The Walkers is a hand drawn looping animation clip of feet descending from above, and slowly walking from left to right. The clip is projection mapped onto a small strip of concrete drainage on the hillside behind the Wrigley Marine Science Center lab building.
The Walkers Animation Loop (48s)
Kelp Forest and The Walkers full sequence loop:
A scuba diver appears, swims through a forest of kelp, and disappears
A pair of feet appear and land on the ground, walking slowly and eventually disappearing.
Installation loops
On Walking
Walking is a simple act, but in its slow pace becomes almost ritualistic. It is the most intimate way in which we make contact with the earth. Paced like this, we are forced to confront the meaning of the action of “walking” itself.
The Walkers aims to interrogate the meaning of this action, and more broadly, what movement on the island signifies. Although The Walkers can represent the all the people who have walked the land, past and present, its core speaks to the legacy of Indigenous erasure in America.
Theory and Praxis
The language of progress and science are a large part of the Wrigley Institute’s mission. However, these ideas are complicated when we consider the lack of awareness regarding the history of the land we walk on. The work’s proximity to the facility brings this to our attention.
The feet featured in The Walkers are disembodied and light in physical presence, but heavy in visual contrast. This juxtaposition reflects the visible/invisible dichotomy of America’s cultural awareness and understanding of its Indigenous people.
Theoretical breakdown of relationship between visuals, action, theme, and narrative.
The Walkers projection location, labeled [2]
Site Specificity and the Affordances of Projection
Green like the colour of the flora that surrounds it, the feet simultaneously blend in and stand out from its natural surroundings. Indigenous people live with the land and not off it, adopting a relationship with the land instead of using it as a resource. This is referenced through the colour of the feet—they have been rendered to be similar in colour to their surroundings.
The Walker’s projection surface is a thin strip of concrete drainage the cuts through a large hill on the island. Its cold and grey colour contrasts with the rest of the greenery that surrounds it. Unassuming, yet everpresent on the island, the drainage path’s presence is a visible, yet invisible part of the island.
“Catalina Island,” like the rest of the United States, is stolen land, and has been systematically and violently stripped of its name, people, and culture by colonization. The Walkers is intentionally extremely bright and only visible at night. These almost ethereal feet are almost ghost like, speaking to the erasure of indigenous people of the land. The Walkers provokes us to think critically about the stolen land we walk on, the nuances of the language of “progress,” and how we can ethically move forward while acknowledging the past.