/ Southern Oscillations
/Research/
![]()
/El Niño, 2024. Ceramic figure with iron crystals/
El
Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a large-scale climatic event involving
periodic warming of sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific
Ocean. This phenomenon disrupts the cold Humboldt Current, which normally flows
northward from Antarctica along the shores of Chile and Peru. As trade winds
weaken, upwelling slows and warm waters spread south, altering regional and
global weather patterns. Such disturbances can even bring rain to the Atacama
Desert. Long portrayed as the driest on Earth, it has always held seeds,
waiting for the conditions to bloom.
The
name “El Niño” refers to the Christ Child, as the phenomenon was typically
observed around Christmas. With the Spanish conquest, Christianity reshaped the
southern continent, imposing new beliefs on native peoples and landscapes. Yet
ancestral cosmologies continue to resonate along the Pacific coasts and in
Andean traditions. The sighting of Spondylus, a precious pink shell once
revered as the food of the gods, was believed to foretell a fertile season.
These shells still drift southward with the warm waters of El Niño, announcing
fecund rains along the desert coasts.
This
year, the shores of Atacama begin to bloom. The Child and the Spondylusreturn once more to make the desert flower. Their visit offers a chance to
reflect on the genuine value of flourishing within a resilient landscape. While
hegemonic perspectives insist on their sole right of “making the desert bloom,”
we prefer to trust in the power of these lands to thrive on their own terms./
![]()
/
Spondylus shell/
![]()
/Añañuca de Fuego, 2024.
Copper crystals on bronze/
![]()
/Añañuca.
Bloomed desert 2017
Atacama, Chile/
![]()
/Añañuca flower field.
Bloomed desert 2017
Atacama, Chile/
/ Southern Oscillations
/Research/
El
Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a large-scale climatic event involving
periodic warming of sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific
Ocean. This phenomenon disrupts the cold Humboldt Current, which normally flows
northward from Antarctica along the shores of Chile and Peru. As trade winds
weaken, upwelling slows and warm waters spread south, altering regional and
global weather patterns. Such disturbances can even bring rain to the Atacama
Desert. Long portrayed as the driest on Earth, it has always held seeds,
waiting for the conditions to bloom.
The
name “El Niño” refers to the Christ Child, as the phenomenon was typically
observed around Christmas. With the Spanish conquest, Christianity reshaped the
southern continent, imposing new beliefs on native peoples and landscapes. Yet
ancestral cosmologies continue to resonate along the Pacific coasts and in
Andean traditions. The sighting of Spondylus, a precious pink shell once
revered as the food of the gods, was believed to foretell a fertile season.
These shells still drift southward with the warm waters of El Niño, announcing
fecund rains along the desert coasts.
This
year, the shores of Atacama begin to bloom. The Child and the Spondylusreturn once more to make the desert flower. Their visit offers a chance to
reflect on the genuine value of flourishing within a resilient landscape. While
hegemonic perspectives insist on their sole right of “making the desert bloom,”
we prefer to trust in the power of these lands to thrive on their own terms./
![]()
/
Spondylus shell/
/Añañuca. Bloomed desert 2017 Atacama, Chile/
/Añañuca flower field. Bloomed desert 2017 Atacama, Chile/
