DROUGHT SCULPTURES

Ella Kaale

Trio

2025

Piano

Viola

Violin

Program Notes: In February of 2025, I roadtripped in the barren but beautiful Mojave Desert of California, spontaneously detouring to the Salton Sea, the largest lake in the state. From the California Department of Fish and Wildlife: "...the current Salton Sea was formed when Colorado River floodwater breached an irrigation canal being constructed in the Imperial Valley in 1905 and flowed into the Salton Sink. The Sea has since been maintained by irrigation runoff in the Imperial and Coachella valleys and local rivers. Because the Sea is a terminal lake, increasingly concentrated salts have resulted in a salinity that is currently 50 percent greater than that of the ocean. The increasing salinity and other water quality issues, including temperature extremes, eutrophication, and related anoxia and algal productivity, are adversely influencing the Sea's fish and wildlife resources." 223 feet below sea level with a population of 313 (2023), the community of Bombay Beach is situated along a remote stretch of the Salton Sea. The town was a getaway hotspot until the 1980s, when the increasing salinity and shrinking of the water destroyed the ecosystem, leaving a ghost town behind. Today, the beach is home to a massive sculpture garden of sardonic, anarchist, iconoclastic, environmentalist, and/or site-specific installations that are free to view. Visiting the Bombay Beach sculptures was a truly impactful experience for me. Each artwork, combined with the desolate landscape, the dusty winds, and the pungent smells of salty chemicals and dead organisms, transported me to a world different from my own. Everything feels retrofuturistic, neither past, present, nor future. I was forced to think about the stories of the people that have lived in this community and how environmental change has drastically transformed their lives. Despite all these factors that would drive others out, the inhabitants of the "Lithium Valley" remain. I have chosen a few of my favorite sculptures from Bombay Beach as the inspiration for this piece. Each movement is an impression of the artwork itself and the environment surrounding it.
Performer Credits: Eunice Kim (violin), David Samuel (viola), Drew Petersen (piano)
Publisher: Mackerel Street Press