"Hidden Waters" art installation tracks buried creek through downtown Salt Lake City.
Creeky Joints
By Benjamin Wood @BjaminWood
Salt Lake City's newest public art installation debuted on Friday, with The Blocks arts district and Seven Canyons Trust unveiling "Hidden Waters," a series of decorative water droplets designed by local artists and placed along North Temple to mark the underground path of City Creek.
Despite being buried—along with the bulk of Salt Lake's canyon streams—during the 20th century, City Creek remains a critical piece of the area's water ecology and served as a primary source of drinking and agricultural water for Utah's Latter-day Saint settlers. That history, as well as the creek's ties to indigenous communities and modern recreation, inspired the designs of "Hidden Waters," which depict cityscapes, native plants and peoples, skiers and, at the corner of North Temple and West Temple, a surreal, three-dimensional eyeball.
"I think the eye represents the consciousness of nature," artist Trevor Dahl explained to a walking tour of roughly 30 people who were among the first to experience the new artworks on Friday.
In its announcement of the installation, the Sevens Canyons Trust described the decorative water droplets as a form of "cultural daylighting" for the historic waterway, which goes underground near State Street on its way between the Wasatch foothills and the Jordan River. A portion of the creek was previously uncovered above State Street and below Memory Grove, and there are long-term plans to divert some of the creek's water and create an above-ground channel on the west side.
"It highlights a past stream daylighting project at City Creek Park and looks ahead to a future project to uncover City Creek along the Folsom Trail," the Seven Canyons Trust said.
The project was among the first recipients of funding from The Blocks' co-create program, which facilitates stakeholder and community collaboration to enhance the public spaces of downtown Salt Lake City through art, performances, activation and other projects.
"Hidden Waters" arrives on the heels of "Life on State," an improvement project on State Street that included a similar installation of neon-themed artwork between 600 South and 900 South.
About The Author
Benjamin Wood
Lifelong Utahn Benjamin Wood has worn the mantle of City Weekly's news editor since 2021. He studied journalism at Utah State University and previously wrote for The Salt Lake Tribune, the Deseret News and Entertainment Weekly
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