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Solar Evaporation Pond Works
Untitled, 2026, Salt, ink
Salt Evaporation Ponds (Installations), 2026
Physical Abrasions on the Landscape
Solar evaporation ponds are used to concentrate and extract salt on a vast industrial scale. Almost always used for human consumption, the huge artificial water bodies collect salt for items abundant in the 21st century such as food seasoning, medicine, batteries and chemicals used in detergent, fibreglass and flame retardents, as well as various other products commercially available in this slowly cumbling epoch.
These "salt farms" are usually located in some of the hottest locations around the globe as the evaporation of the water is a crucial element in the extraction of salt. Enormous quantities of sea water and lake water brine are pumped into hollow beds, and over the span of years of slow evaporation, what remains is a thick layer of salt spread flat across areas 112 times bigger than the average football pitch. Each pond is rectangular shaped, and bunched together for efficiency and area minimisation
Photo-samples from satellites of solar evaporation farms
To prevent the salt from hardening and to evenly spread the salt residues, workers and industrial machines rake the salty beds along the ponds. From satellite imagery and once the ponds are close to/ have evaporated, you can see clearly the lines on the surface which acts as physical archives of these processes and scratchings on the landscape. I see it as intimate, accidental prints remaining from the workers who raked these ponds and operated these raking machines.
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