Linen and raw silk dyed with: Rabbit brush, indigo, sandalwood, osage, madder root, cochineal, annatto, micaceous clay, glass, elm, Pleurotus ostreatus and Pleurotus cornucopiae

(dimensions variable)

This remediation pillow and installation were made for The Healing Foods Oasis, a permaculture restoration project designed by Beata Tsosie-Peña and built and maintained by TWU and the Española community. The purpose of this project was to restore a damaged landscape and bring back traditional Tewa foods and medicinal plants to the area. Many of these traditional plants have been lost or are unable to be used/harvested because of the contamination of the surrounding ecology due to the development of nuclear weaponry at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

To Pass Through Safely was made as an addition to the terraced, permaculture landscape. This piece, and 7 other remediation pillows were installed in a swale on the uppermost terrace-level. This layer directly catches and channels water that runs off from the City Hall parking lot. The remediation pillows, filled with Pleurotus ostreatus, act as a filtration-system, filtering the Aromatic Hydrocarbons from the water. The imagery on the quilted covering was developed through conversations with TWU. It depicts a wheel with equal arms which honor the four seasons as well as the Four Directions (blue, white, red, yellow). It also depicts the petals of many flowers coming together to form a community – much like a healing farmscape. This piece was given to the ground on April 28, 2018.

Targeted contaminant: Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, exhaust and crude oil run off from parking lot

Impacts: Probable carcinogen, inhalation and dermal contact can cause cancer