Specter by Sterling Ruby. Photo copyright 2019 by Anna Boudinot.
Desert X is unlike any art exhibition you’ve ever seen. A biennial exhibit inaugurated in 2017, it spans fifty miles of the Coachella Valley, and most of the artwork is large in scale and located outside. And it’s free! While it’s impossible to see all of it in a single day, an easy day trip from Los Angeles will let you see some of it. All you need is a free afternoon, a car, and GPS. Here, I highlight the four installations closest to LA.
Specter by Sterling Ruby
Specter can best be described as a huge orange box. That’s what it is, but that’s not all it is. Its incongruity with the blankness of the sand and the blue-black mountains in the background creates a sense of disorientation; the orange is a glaring shade that almost hurts your eyes. Sterling Ruby has been working with that color orange for a while now, and he explained in the Desert X podcast that it was inspired by his memories of bright orange hunting vests in rural Pennsylvania, where he grew up. When photographed in color, the orange makes the box appear Photoshopped into the photograph. There’s no way around that, and it’s fascinating. I had to wait a few minutes before the crowd of people taking selfies had cleared enough so I could snap a photo of it without anyone in the frame. Because it’s the closest piece to Los Angeles and also very close to Palm Springs, the sculpture might be one of the most popular ones at Desert X. It has been vandalized more than once, so maybe throw a rock at anyone you see trying to vandalize it again.
The stunning augmented reality of Revolutions by Nancy Baker Cahill.
Revolutions by Nancy Baker Cahill
This piece alone is worth the drive, but before you go, make sure you download the 4th Wall app. When you arrive on site, Revolutions doesn’t look like much. Some railroad tracks, lots of sand, a sprinkling of desert wildflowers, and an abandoned car stripped of most of its parts. In the distance is the 10 freeway and the famous wind farm. Once you activate the app, it opens up a viewing window on your phone or tablet and suddenly you see them: colorful shapes, like flower blossoms or fireworks, spinning in the sky in front of you. It’s so mesmerizing it seems like magic, but it’s simply Augmented Reality (AR). This piece was born from graphite drawings and Nancy Baker Cahill’s desire to put the viewer inside of her art. In a fantastic Los Angeles Times article, she remarks “I believe in access to art, and public art, and wanted to give it the broadest possible reach,” she says. “AR is a far more democratic medium, nearly everyone has a smartphone.” You can see my smartphone video of Revolutions here.
Ghost Palm by Kathleen Ryan. Photo copyright 2019 by Anna Boudinot.
Ghost Palm by Kathleen Ryan
Hot springs aren’t the only thing underground in Desert Hot Springs. The San Andreas Fault also lurks underneath, waiting to wreak havoc on life above when the Big One finally hits. Santa Monica artist Kathleen Ryan was inspired by the juxtaposition of this impending doom and the groves of desert palm trees that thrive thanks to deep underground oases—water that has pooled in the fissures between tectonic plates. It led her to build a sculpture that depicts the only species of palm tree that’s native to California. It’s constructed of clear, plastic, industrial materials that sound almost like a rickety windmill when the wind kicks up. In the Desert X podcast, Ryan describes a spiritual, almost supernatural, experience that led her to select the location for Ghost Palm; be sure to listen to her story before you visit the site.
Going Nowhere Pavilion #01 by Julian Hoeber. Photo copyright 2019 by Anna Boudinot
Going Nowhere Pavilion #01 by Julian Hoeber
A short drive from Ghost Palm, Going Nowhere Pavilion #01 is tucked into a residential neighborhood speckled with hotels that tout hot pools sustained by natural mineral springs. The piece, a coral pink structure made from breezeblocks, gets its name from its design. It’s a Möbius strip, a surface with only one side and only one boundary. It goes nowhere into infinity, like a M.C. Escher painting come to life. The DesignBoom blog suggests that multidisciplinary artist Julian Hoeber is investigating the relationship between geometry and human psychology; the artist himself announced that “the point of this project is to create and then solve an infinite set of problems, acting as a metaphor for the radical potential of introspection.” While you’re getting lost in the looping walls, don’t miss your chance to see the artist’s other work, Executed Variant DHS #1. I didn’t realize it was right next door and I left without seeing it.
Hurry! Desert X ends on April 21, 2019. Download the Desert X app to get precise locations of the artwork, or follow the map created by KCET. If you want to hang out in the desert for a while, read up on my Desert Road Trip series for more fun stuff to do.