A concerted effort by 350.org, the Santa Fe Art Institute, SFR and numerous community organizations, Flash Flood for a Living River wasn’t exactly a flood, but it was more than the sputtering Santa Fe Trickle. This week for Gallery Gawker we entered a different type of art space: a riverbed. Also, check out our slideshow of the events at the bottom.
Using blue tarps and painted, recycled cardboard, community members stood in the riverbed and turned it from a sandy brown (unpainted sides of cardboard) to blankets of blue in a coordinated—for the most part—simulation of a river. From space, a splash of blue snaked its way around a river bend, nearly constituting an “S” of azul on the Santa Fe River’s sandy length.
Slideshow by: Matthew Morrow
According to Santa Fe Art Institute Public Relations Director Michelle LaFlamme-Childs, aerial estimates placed 1,200 to 1,500 people in the Santa Fe River bed. Though oraganizers had hoped for a turnout of 3,000, LaFlamme-Childs says they “shot for the stars and hit the sky.”
