LOS ANGELES — A progression of Lauren Bon’s “Not a Cornfield” project from 2005, “Bending the River” is an infrastructural art project that lifts a portion of the LA River water to the Metabolic Studio, passing through a native wetland treatment and then will be distributed to local parks including the 52 acre adjacent LA State Historic Park. 

The project involved working with multiple agencies, including the Army Corps of Engineers, and getting over 70 permits to work in the LA River.

The project, originally conceived to include a monumental water wheel to help capture water, has gone through many iterations since 2019 and has been simplified over the years to allow for maximum repeatability. 

Metabolic Studio’s FarmLab works with the river project to study the environmental systems and impacts of the project.