On display May 16, 2025 - April 30, 2026 at the Dumke Arts Plaza, 445 25th St, Ogden, UT 84401

This was water is an interactive sculpture, sound, and video installation. The sculptures are modeled after the gypsum crystals, or “dirty diamonds”, that emerge through the salty crust at the Great Salt Lake. The lake is drying up at unsustainable rates due to water consumption and climate change. As the water’s edge recedes, the clay lakebed is exposed. The crystals form in the land that misses water. The crystals form so rapidly (in geologic time) that they capture the surrounding clay and tar which muddies the transparent crystals–hence the name “dirty diamonds.”

Recent studies by Dr. Bonnie Baxter and student Paulina Martinez-Koury suggest that the crystals are teeming with microbial life. Metaphorically, Bornhoft and Campbell imagine the crystals as vestiges of the drying lake. These beautiful artifacts foretell dire consequences. Toxic metals such as arsenic and mercury also rest in the lakebed. As the lake continues to lose water, we risk the toxins becoming airborne and poisoning all living beings in proximity to the lake.

Each of the sculpture rock mounds is fitted with lidar sensors, lights, and speakers that respond to a person’s presence. Lights inside the sculptures also flicker as someone approaches. The interactive elements evoke the lively matter that animates these geological phenomena. This multimedia installation invites reflection upon our relationship with this fascinating and fragile inland sea.

This programming is generously supported by Weber County RAMP, the Mark E. & Lola G. Austad Endowment, Jack and Bonnie Wahlen, WSU's Lindquist College of Arts & Humanities, Ogden City Arts, Weber Student Fees and the Utah Division of Arts & Museums.

On display Jan. 23 - Apr. 3, 2026 at Shaw Gallery in the Kimball Arts Building (WSU Ogden Campus). 

Animals and humans have always migrated: for different climates, for opportunities, for safety, for love; for necessity and curiosity. For humans, political borders and the laws governing political states are perpetually shifting. Our current concerns about im/migration are not new. The nuance of real lives and specific places gets erased in times of polemical rhetoric. This group exhibition brings together perspectives from artists whose work addresses the beauty and complexities of human migration. In the end, we are all just passing through different spaces on the same planet.

Featured artists:

Jacobo Alonso
Enrique Chagoya
Scherezade Garcia
Salvador Jiménez-Flores
Pablo Lopez Luz
Mark Menjívar
Dylan A.T. Miner
Delilah Montoya
Rael San Fratello
Marcos Ramírez ERRE
Nancy E. Rivera
Undocumented Migration Project
Vincent Valdez

Schedule of events:

Friday, Jan. 23, 6-8 p.m.: Opening Reception at Shaw Gallery

Wednesday, Jan. 28, 6 p.m.: Artist Talk by Nancy E. Rivera in Kimball Arts room 143

Friday, Feb. 6, 7 p.m.: Migration Poetry Reading at Shaw Gallery

Thursday, Feb. 19, 6 p.m.: Artist Talk by Mark Menjivar in Stewart Library's Hetzel-Hoellein room

Thursday, March 12, 6 p.m.: La Bestia film screening in Stewart Library's Hetzel-Hoellein room

Thursday, March 26, 6 p.m.: Artist Talk by Jacobo Alonso in Kimball Arts room 143

Friday, Apr. 3, 7 p.m.: Spanish guitar performance by Antonio Garcia at Shaw Gallery

This programming is generously supported by Weber County RAMP, the Mark E. & Lola G. Austad Endowment, Jack and Bonnie Wahlen, WSU's Lindquist College of Arts & Humanities, Weber Student Fees and the Utah Division of Arts & Museums.