Mishe-Nahma, commissioned by the Hudson River Museum in 2004, is an installation 
relating to ecological issues in the Hudson River. It is a metaphor for the River which is 
struggling to maintain its vitality in a post-industrial age.  

Mishe-Nahma is a Native American name meaning King of Fishes, meant to identify the 
great and mysterious sturgeon which is a prehistoric creature, having survived for over 
100 million years. The focus of the installation is the Atlantic Sturgeon which spawns 
in the Hudson River and whose survival has been threatened by the industrial assaults 
on the river.   

The installation also contains a mask of the sturgeon, and a photomontage which portrays 
the artist wearing the mask and arising out of the river. The title of the photomontage, 
Metanoia, comes from Classical Greek, formed from meta, which signifies change and 
noeo, which indicates mind/heart. Metanoia signifies a change of mind/heart, and 
for the artist, the title refers specifically to our change of heart regarding the River and 
the beings which live within it. When Longfellow wrote his poem The Song of Hiawatha in the 
mid-1800's, Hiawatha was filled with hubris and slayed Mishe-Nahma to prove his own strength: 
man as dominant over nature. In the span of 100 years, we have almost fulfilled the prophecy - 
the King of Fishes has nearly been destroyed. Beginning in the late 1990's and in concert with 
the revitalization of the Hudson River, the sturgeon population is being protected and will take 
at least 50-100  years to be restored. We are having an awakening, a change of heart, a new 
understanding of our relationship with and our responsibility to other forms of life.