Lake Retrieval

Lake Retrieval (2020) implies the desert’s triumph in regaining its ancient lake—the shrunken lake of Quaternary. The work was created in response to 2019 news reports of the sudden appearance of a lake in the heart of the Lut Desert. I was incredibly moved by the extraordinary scene of a vast, deep blue lake with large waves amid the desert. More striking still was the presence of a colony of migrant birds floating on the lake and flying above the water. Following up the news report, I came to learn that the lake manifested as a result of inundation in the area. In 2019, a series of flash floods struck 25 of the Iran’s 31 provinces, including Kerman (Asanjan et al., 2019). Brought about by climate change and alterations in weather patterns, an unprecedented amount of precipitation in arid and semi-arid areas of Iran has led to a higher frequency of flooding events (Vaghefi et al., 2019). Within Kerman, the inundation of a saline river which originates in Khorasan province (“Lut Desert Lake, “ n.d.) caused a large stream of water to run through the province, destroying the roads (“Iran – Floods, “ 2020) en route to its ultimate destination—the Lut Desert.

Knowing the origins of the lake, I was torn between the horror of environmental devastation and miraculous spectacle of the overnight manifestation of water in the parched landscape of Lut. I was determined to respond to this phenomenon in my studio-led research. The initial idea was to display the body of accumulated water through a range of concentric circles which slowly grew as the form expanded. I started drawing circles from the centre of the work, leading the lines outward with the aid of detergent—the medium for controlling and shaping acrylic on the milk’s surface. Each panel was created separately within a large plastic tub containing plenty of milk and, in such a manner, the puzzle of the work came together. Connectivity between the pieces was achieved partly through maintaining an overall vision of the whole work and partly through coincidence and chance.