aqua + H

An evolving, roving and Geopolitical project developed in partnership with HRIBANIKA — a solar-powered Earthship community center in Zipolite, Oaxaca founded by Psychologist Angélica Tonalkiahuitl. Together, aqua + H seeks to re-stabilize sustainable access to water in a region of increasingly problematic supply through the creation of Visual Art NFTs that document a series of my Open Space Artworks (view Genesis Collection here).

Created in 2014, Angélica constructed HRIBANIKA’s well with two Oaxacan brothers who had inherited their technical skill and knowledge of water within the land from their family lineage. Operational for 3 years with clean potable water serving the entire complex, this well’s access to the water table became blocked after Tropical Storm Beatriz hit the Pacific coastline in June 2017.

Historically, families and businesses of the area have stewarded their own individual needs through wells as drinking and tap water source, yet over the last decades the majority of home and businesses have now switched to purchasing non-potable water from the town and purified potable water from private vendors — quantities all transported by diesel truck and delivered to each individual location (this region has no water infrastructure). On a critical note, Zipolite’s non-potable water is sourced from a single municipal well which has become over-extracted as recent water tests now measure sustained salinity — causes attributed to the ongoing tourist boom and decreasing annual rainfall occurring regionally.

aqua + H is currently in pre-production where sales earnings from an upcoming Public Artwork and subsequent NFTs will be split via Angélica’s new wallet address 0xc70e787045af9d044023b77269d720cf743525e4 to initiate the well’s repair along with funding new solar powered equipment to mobilize HRIBANIKA with its groundwater. See page below aqua + H Well Restoration Budget for more details. The 2nd half of NFT sales will activate production for a subsequent Open Space Artwork (and its NFTs) in a new site as we restore HRIBANIKA’s well in real time.

NFT Collection on Foundation

aqua + H Budget

About HRIBANIKA

P U B L I C A T I O N :

ORKYDACEAE: VOLUME I: TANTRUM

Interview with Benjamin Merrick

MARCH 2023

https://orkydaceae.com/

PROCESS + PHOTOS: