About Florida Bay (2017)

Airie Nest Exhibition: About Florida Bay
October 2017 – January 2018

We (Valerie LeBlanc and Daniel H. Dugas) are very happy that three of our Flow: Big Waters videos will be shown in the About Florida Bay exhibition.

The Florida Bay, located between the Everglades National Park and the Florida Keys, has undergone a series of ecological changes that have severely altered its natural ecosystem and resulted in a critical loss of native wildlife. This exhibition features select works which address the significance of this contested area and its precarious future, while recapturing its splendid past. AIRIE Fellows featured include Mark Dion, Valerie LeBlanc & Daniel H Dugas, Valerie George, Nick Gilmore, Jason Hedges and Magnus Sodamin.

http://airie.org/event/airie-nest-exhibition-about-florida-bay/

FLOW – daily features (2016)

Prompted by a 2014 tour through a missile launch site in the Everglades National Park, a woman reflects on the time when the Russian/Cuban/American nuclear standoff threatened to end life as we know it.

Valerie LeBlanc and Daniel H. Dugas
Soundmap: http://flow.basicbruegel.com/soundmap/

A mystery begins to form when a researcher finds uprooted plants on a Loop Road bridge. Tension mounts when a second car stops in that remote location.

Valerie LeBlanc and Daniel H. Dugas
Soundmap: http://flow.basicbruegel.com/soundmap/

There is one road that leads from the Everglades National Park entrance to Flamingo. There are no streets lights and at night, it is very dark.

Valerie LeBlanc and Daniel H. Dugas
Soundmap: http://flow.basicbruegel.com/soundmap/

The deer pen was built in July 1934. There are a few photographs depicting the area but little information exists on why it was built. Although it is located in the forest near a well-known trail, it is difficult to find.

Valerie LeBlanc and Daniel H. Dugas
Soundmap: http://flow.basicbruegel.com/soundmap/

Searching for a landmark in an overgrown setting, a woman is overcome by the atmosphere rising from the landscape.

Valerie LeBlanc and Daniel H. Dugas
Soundmap: http://flow.basicbruegel.com/soundmap/

Some people say that during the Cuban Missile Crisis, there were surveillance bunkers built along the Old Ingraham Road. Others deny the existence of such structures.

Valerie LeBlanc and Daniel H. Dugas
Soundmap: http://flow.basicbruegel.com/soundmap/

An abandoned mango forest is slipping back into the natural world. In July, the mango season is coming to an end and most of the fruit has fallen to the ground. Armed against the night with flashlights, two men set out into the rows of trees to find Burmese pythons

Valerie LeBlanc and Daniel H. Dugas
Soundmap: http://flow.basicbruegel.com/soundmap/

Nocturnal Desertion
Animals hiding in a deserted mango grove wait hopelessly for vindication.

Valerie LeBlanc and Daniel H. Dugas
Soundmap: http://flow.basicbruegel.com/soundmap/

Chekika the Zone
This area of the Everglades National Park has been closed since 2013. The gates are chained shut and the Rangers’ houses are boarded up. Chekika is a zone, the ruins of dreams.

Valerie LeBlanc and Daniel H. Dugas
Soundmap: http://flow.basicbruegel.com/soundmap/

Marion’s Car
Single lane and almost deserted, the Loop Road runs through the Big Cypress National Preserve. A sprinkling of people live there, mostly down narrow laneways that twist back into the trees. It has a reputation for being moonshine country.

Valerie LeBlanc and Daniel H. Dugas
Soundmap: http://flow.basicbruegel.com/soundmap/

The End of the World
July 8, 1905. The Bay is calm. The shore is a thin line of land, the sky faint blue, white. From Oyster Key, Flamingo appears to be a distant mirage.

Valerie LeBlanc and Daniel H. Dugas
Soundmap: http://flow.basicbruegel.com/soundmap/