Limits – ArtIST Residency In the MojaVe Desert

Limits
Site-specific Installation in the Mojave Desert
made of rocks and rusted metallic containers found on site
Desert Dairy Artist Residency, Twentynine Palms, California
February 2023
GPS coordinates here.

I had my fourth Artist Residency at Desert Dairy in Twentynine Palms, California. I spent two weeks in the Mojave Desert during winter creating the installation Limits.

I used rocks and rusted metallic containers I collected from an unauthorized dump nearby. I collected several full wheelbarrows of rusted cans and wheeled them back to the spot where I was working at. It is only 0.15 miles (200 mètres) between the two. As a tool, I only used a hammer to flatten the cans. Otherwise, I had the wheelbarrow, a bucket, 2 sticks, and some string to draw circles in the sand.

I decided to do this year’s installation close to Slow Down, which I made last year. Slow Down is still there, and it looks even better than when I finished it a year ago. It looks smooth because it rained, and the ground has no footprints.

Other site-specific installations I created at Desert Dairy using materials I found on-site include Exponential (2020), Our House (2021), and Slow Down (2022).

The four installations are the chapters of a story I am passionate about: the Exponential human enterprise is threatening the biosphere –Our House. The complexity we created makes our system very fragile. There is an urgent necessity to Slow Down if we want a chance to keep a livable planet. One fundamental aspect of this necessary revolution is understanding and accepting Limits and our planet’s physical reality.