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Brackish Water Los Angeles

ISBN: 9798990698567
Binding: Hardcover
Author: Debra Scacco
Contributors: Edited by: Aandrea Stang
Pages: 128
Trim: 7.7 x 11.7 inches
Published: 6/1/2026

Brackish Water Los Angeles examines the ecosystems, infrastructures, and politics surrounding brackish water, which is the space where salt and fresh waters meet. The book considers the larger implications of in-betweenness, including issues of access, inclusion, ecological racism, and cultural/class system interchanges along Los Angeles's waterways. Text contributions include commissioned essays by co-curators Aandrea Stang and Debra Scacco, Emily Eliza Scott, and Connie Zheng; poetry by Robin Coste Lewis and Isaac Michael Ybarra; and "Undersea," a 1937 essay written by preeminent writer and ecologist Rachel Carson.

Brackish Water Los Angeles accompanies an exhibition of the same name which was presented from August through December 2024 at the University Art Gallery at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Co-published in 2026 with University Art Gallery at California State University, Dominguez Hills, as part of PST ART: Art & Science Collide, presented by Getty.



Debra Scacco is a research-based artist whose work spans studio, public, pedagogical, and curatorial practices. Her installations, sculptures, drawings, and interventions live within the entanglement of ecology, infrastructure, and cultural memory; and are grounded in the knowledge that everything is connected. Scacco was the inaugural artist-in-residence within the City of Santa Monica Public Works Department (2023-26) and at Ellis Island Museum and Statue of Liberty National Monument (2012). Her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, The Durfee Foundation, and the City of Los Angeles; and has been exhibited at sites including Royal Academy of Arts (London), Los Angeles Public Library (Los Angeles), Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), and Charlie James Gallery (Los Angeles). Scacco is co-founder of the Getty PST ART Climate Impact Program, a multi-year initiative dedicated to lessening the climate impact of exhibition-making. Scacco is co-director of Getty PST ART project Brackish Water Los Angeles.

Aandrea Stang is an educator and curator/producer specializing in contemporary and socially engaged art practices. She is Director of the University Art Gallery at California State University, Dominguez Hills, where she also serves on the Art and Design Department faculty. Throughout her career, Stang has focused on institutional program development, creating and launching contemporary art and art education programs for diverse audiences at major cultural organizations, including Hauser Wirth & Schimmel, Occidental College, and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA). Known for her innovative programming and cross-institutional collaborations, she led MOCA's Engagement Party (2008-12), a pioneering initiative supporting new work by emerging artists, and was the founding director of Occidental College's Oxy Arts program. She is an active contributor to the region's cultural landscape and serves as board president of the Feminist Center for Creative Work. Stang is co-director of Getty PST ART project Brackish Water Los Angeles.

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