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In 2012, my partner and I took a three-month road trip around the States, starting on the west coast and finishing up on the east. That was this Indian-born Brit s first extended experience of the majesty and vastness of the great American landscape. For much of the journey, my observation of the panoramas that we drove through turned into a quiet mourning. My mind insistently juxtaposed upon the surrounding country towering words to the effect of Nicholas Galanin s unforgettable Never Forget installation, which reads in 45-foot high letters:
INDIAN LAND
When I first saw photos of this work on social media, I was immediately transported back to that experience; to that spontaneously arising, visceral response to this land, this country and its creation story as the United States of America.
A Maze in the Desert Depicts the Risky, Uncertain Reality for Immigrants
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What a 122-Square-Foot Cabin Says About Life in the Modern World
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Desert X 2021, which explores the desert as both a place and an idea.
Despite the relatively short hike from the parking lot up to Saudi Arabian artist Zarah Alghamdi s Desert X 2021 installation, What Lies Behind the Walls
,
it still felt like a pilgrimage of sorts. The dark, monolithic wall of textured material loomed in the distance a mecca to the migratory experience of memory from one desert to another.
Mercifully, midday temperatures in Desert Hot Springs were not yet in the full force of summer, so nothing more than a light sweat was kicked up, along with some inevitable dirt. It was Sunday, and there was a reasonable smattering of visitors taking the journey with me. Walking silently, with the wall in my line of vision, I overheard genial conversations of people visiting from New York, bringing with them their own cache of memory and experience with which to interpret this work.
Undeniably, Reparations is a word that urgently needs to make its way into America s political, social and ecological dialog in a practical and measurable way.
As we drove on, it was hard to tell if the juxtaposition of an actual advertising billboard for Rocky s Pawn Shop was intentionally meant to emphasize the narratives and messages from the drive-by installations by being such a stark counterpoint. 1/5 Simmons Because You Know Ultimately We Will Band a Militia art installation stands opposite of a billboard advertisement for Rocky s Pawn Shop. | Martin Mancha 2/5 Xaviera Simmons Because You Know Ultimately We Will Band A Militia reads You are entering a reparations framework. | Martin Mancha