On PCH and Newland St. Huntington Beach, the captivating mural “Kaleidoscope” covers one of the biggest power plants in California, the Huntington Beach Energy Project. Many drive by, in awe of the mural’s color and beauty, too distracted to realize what its purpose is or why it was painted in the first place.
Owned by AES Corporation, the Huntington Beach Energy Project is a natural gas-fired power plant. The power plant has long been a source of contention between Huntington Beach residents and city officials who feel hampered in their efforts to faithfully represent their constituents in protesting the plant’s expansion or energy practices.
In a 2001 LA Times article on the plant’s unpopular decision to run two power-generating units, former Mayor and City Councilwoman Debbie Cook stated that the plant kept protesters, “undermined every step of the way.” She further explained that she didn’t think, “there was anything that would have held up the start-up of this plant. They have a lot of friends in high places.”
The plant was openly criticized for its unsound environmental practices and for its unsightliness. According to the LA Times, the plant faced the imposition of an “ugly tax” in Dec. 2001.
This highly visible eyesore has long had people question whether the hazards of its emissions justified its existence, especially considering its proximity to the Pacific Ocean. Although the plant has been controversial since it was built, its unique makeover in 2022 by muralist Kim West, most well-known for her bubbly and colorful works, cloaked the menacing power plant in a vibrant and joyous style.
The plant has been heavily protested for many years; however, AES Corporation used the allure of public art to divert attention from their social and moral responsibility. While muralisitic art is traditionally utilized to expose injustices within our community, such as PangeaSeed Foundation’s sixteen large-scale murals illustrating the impacts of climate change on ecosystems, “Kaleidoscope” did just the opposite. They manipulated beauty for a less common use of murals — diversion.
“Kaleidoscope” showcases an array of yellow and orange butterflies set against contrasting blues and greens. A mesmerizing puddle of colors beneath mimics the colorful landscape the butterflies fly over. Kim West sought out inspiration from elements such as “Surf City, watery things, gardens, and blue”, as detailed on her website. This inspiration and Huntington’s location along the Pacific Flyway — a major migration route for birds and butterflies — made for a perfect intersection of urban and natural. A group of butterflies, collectively known as a kaleidoscope, elegantly cloaks the majority of the building, creating a spectacle of “shifting, beautiful colors that are playing with one another.”
Surrounding the plant is an expansive marsh skilly integrated by West, merging the diversity of the landscape below to the vastness of the sky and ocean above. This blend creates a beautiful middle ground, where butterflies soar and palm trees sway in the wind. The use of negative space and well-rounded composition serves to open up the wall without overwhelming the massive canvas. The balance of colors, the incorporation of natural elements, and the masking of something so unappealing to something new and alluring, all contribute to this mural’s flawless execution.
Although beautiful, this facade simply masks the underlying problem: a plant near the ocean and wetlands. Pollutants from the plant in the form of methane gas and phosphate emissions, are only compounded by the ever-present risk of underground or marine storage, pipe leaks, and tank explosions. These pollutants contaminate bodies of water, pollute the air, and damage the soil; posing a threat to the health of local organisms, as outlined in the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin’s Environmental Impacts of Power Plants. In the neighboring wetlands, where many species rely on specific water conditions, any leakage or contaminants can have significant effects on the entire ecosystem. Coastal areas and wetlands are often major breeding grounds for many species, such as migratory birds and fish, and the disturbance caused by the infrastructure of gas lines used in the plant can lead to major habitat loss and a decline in Huntington’s biodiversity. One of the largest concerns is the withdrawal and release of heated water back into the ocean, primarily used in the cooling process of power plants. This thermal pollution not only sucks up local fish in the process of obtaining water, but it spits the now-polluted water and damaged fish back into the ocean once the heated water has done its job inside the plant. Thermal pollution often disrupts the natural temperature of aquatic ecosystems, negatively affecting fish and other organisms, leading to major declines in the aquatic population that borders the Huntington Beach Energy Project.
And it seems to have worked; not only is the site more visually appealing, but it also faces much less scrutiny since the makeover as evidenced by a lack of new coverage of protests. By disguising their hazardous power plant with a tourist sight, AES has quieted dissent over the plant and its operations. The contrast of a beautiful artistic expression concealing a hazardous power plant underscores a major irony – the danger that lies beneath aesthetics and the moral reprehensibility of deceiving the community for self-serving corporate motives. While the mural enhances the visual appeal of the dull infrastructure, it does not counteract the environmental risks associated. This ultimately raises my concerns about downplaying or overlooking the ecological consequences associated, as the attraction of art pivots attention away from the urgent need to address negative environmental impacts and harm to surrounding ecosystems.
