To Love the Hibiscus, You Must First Love the Monsoon

Water is a regulatory factor not only for the climate but also for life on the planet. Today’s higher temperatures and often extreme weather conditions affect the availability and distribution of rainfall, snowmelt, river flows, and groundwater. This also further deteriorates water quality. The work “To Love the Hibiscus, You Must First Love the Monsoon” is a composition of objects that refer to water collection, transport, and storage. Tiles, pipes, filters, vessels, and funnels that seem to be complete or broken, industrial or handmade, of the past or the present are found on the ground as fragments of water infrastructures and utensils. They point to the use, waste, or shortage of water, whereas their placement highlights the connection between water, ground, vegetation, and life. The title of the piece is a line from Hala Alyan’s poem “Thirty” and refers to the need to confront a system larger than ours.