Title: No Restoration
Artist: Bobby Lee
Year: 2024
Medium: Single-channel video, 4:22
Edition: 1 of 3
Credit Line: Collection of the John and Geraldine Lilley Museum of Art. Gift of the artist, in dedication to People of Red Mountain

Description: It is estimated that the Thacker Pass lithium mine, located in Humboldt County, will disturb roughly 5,545 acres, pump up to 3,250 gallons per minute of groundwater in an arid desert, and utilize 2,900 tons of acid per day at the on-site sulfuric acid plant (1). In the push for a green energy transition, the multinational corporation Lithium Americas was able to fast-track approvals for the mine during the pandemic without proper consultation and consent from native tribes.

These images taken of the Thacker Pass lithium mine’s construction show a slow transition to an artificially “restored” state created by AI image generators. The AI generated image, made possible through the products of mining and extraction, reinterprets the landscape to something that looks real but is not, hiding the reality of what is actually happening to the land. Once a landscape is disturbed to such a scale, there is no restoration possible.

References:
Thacker Pass Lithium Mine in Humboldt County, NV. Great Basin Resource Watch
People of Red Mountain