Date: Feb. 9, 2021
From: Bring Back the Kern.
Andres Amador, an artist well known for large scale, temporary art installations across the US and the world, is coming to Bakersfield this week to create an installation on the canvas of the dry Kern Riverbed.
Titled “Flow,” the installation is meant to evoke the smooth lines of flowing water and the eddies created by a river’s currents. The design seeks to highlight the irony of the riverbed being dry and raise the question of “why?”
Date of installation: Thursday, Feb. 11.
Time of installation: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. To see and/or participate in the whole process, come early. To view the completed (or nearly completed) design, come in the afternoon.
Location: Riverbed adjacent to Beach Park.
More details: “Flow” has been generously supported by the Virginia and Alfred Harrell Foundation, whose 2021 funding focus is the environment.
This installation is large scale — the curving lines in the design are over 2500′ in length.
Extensive community involvement: This project has and will continue to involve volunteer participation, in the collection of the plant material, the creation of the installation on Feb. 11 and the removal of the artwork.
Improving the parkway: The plant material used in the installation has been collected by volunteers who have removed invasive plants from elsewhere along the parkway. Seeds from this plant are sterile, but the plant material will be removed and disposed of within two weeks of the installation to ensure that the invasive weeds don’t spread elsewhere along the river.
We invite the community to come by and meet Andres, engage with the artwork, and to learn more about Bring Back the Kern.
To prevent the spread of COVID, we ask that all visitors please maintain social distancing and wear masks.
About Bring Back the Kern: Bring Back the Kern was formed in 2020 by community members passionate about the Kern River and frustrated at the continual gridlock on numerous disputes related to Kern River water that have kept the Kern in Bakersfield dry except in the wettest of times.
We are committed to informing our community on the issues that are preventing the Kern from flowing and to putting pressure on elected and appointed officials to change the status quo and restore the river. Bring Back the Kern is an official subcommittee of The Kern River Parkway Foundation, a registered 501c3.
Learn more at bringbackthekern.org
