Oculus: Emerson / Beebe (Sonomia)

Environmental Installation: 6 ft. diameter, steel, glass, Napa Valley water, timed misting system,
de Rosa Preserve, Napa County, CA, 2000

Final state for the Oculus: Emerson/Beebe, No. 1, as: Oculus: Emerson/Beebe (Sonomia), Misting system uses water from the aquifers of the Pliocene Sonoma Volcanics, also known for its use in Napa Valley wines, as its "vitreous humor."

Alternating periods of misting and drying are intended to build up a residue on the interior surface as a symbolic distallation of the Napa/Sonoma landscape and aquifer system in the form of deposited salts.

See the related works Eocene and Pliocene, 1999.