The Mark Ridley-Thomas Behavioral Health Center renovation project was a collaborative effort among the Departments of Mental Health, Public Health, Health Services, Probation, and Workforce Development, Aging, and Community Services. Addressing the issues of mental illness, substance use disorders, homelessness, and clinical needs, this project provides a mix of residential, outpatient, and support services to fill major gaps in the continuum of care within South Los Angeles. Artist Cliff Garten was selected to create an artwork for the exterior façade.
The sculpture
Water to Wishes uses images of water as suggestions of hope and renewal. The sculpture recalls the streams and springs that once fed Rancho La Tajuata, the Spanish land-grant that became Willowbrook. Though the stream that gave Willowbrook its name is no longer visible because of urbanization, we still understand the brook as a symbol for the identity of Willowbrook. The artist adapted three existing columns of the building’s facade to create vertical sculptures that recall the water of Willowbrook as a metaphor for the healing mission of the Mark Ridley-Thomas Behavioral Health Center. The water columns are iconic markers, and their texts embody the many voices of the of the MRTBHC and its mission of healing in the Willowbrook community. The artwork consists of metal sculptural panels that have wave forms like water, each with a blue back-lit stream in the center formed with words creating poetry using three languages, English, Spanish, and Tongva. The texts which form the central blue river in each sculpture are written in Tongva, Spanish and English—written by writer Cynthia Gonzalez and poet Bruce Lemon, Jr. They drew inspiration from the Watts and Willowbrook neighborhoods and the spirit of the artwork. The text each of the three columns can be read below:
South Column: "Paar `eyooxariin xaa, streaming down our brook, filling our cups till they runneth over with hope, gathering beneath the willow tree community becomes pukuu' familia united"
Center Column: "Agua es vida, las tormentas agitan el mar, waves crash trickling down through adversity, rains wash us from within, rejuvenece clean face soul skin heal home heart kin, Righteous rivers roll in, inundan el miedo con una torrente de amor, douse the chaavot nourish nehiinkem so we too shall rise as rivers do, nacímos aquí, our lives are saved here"
North Column: "Water is life, from our mighty brook by the willows, filling us till floods recede, taamet shines, 'anaangere 'ekwaa woon, siempre lo hemos sido, we always will be"
Cliff Garten is an internationally recognized sculptor and founder of Cliff Garten Studio in Venice, California. By connecting people to places and infrastructure through sculptural material, social history and ecology, Garten's work locates the latent potential in every public place and situation to become more than the specific functions it appears to perform. Sculpture and landscape, function and form, like public and private experiences are never distinct, but exchange places throughout the day. Sculpture defines our interaction and movement by creating energy between things, generating interest in public activity, reframing our private lives and creating a sense of place within public and private realms.
To learn more visit:
https://www.cliffgartenstudio.com/ 
