Rasmus Nielsen of Superflex on "fish-friendly architecture"
Release Date: 02/15/2019
Sterling Ruby's fluorescent orange monolith
Desert X Podcast
"I love getting out of a gallery," says Sterling Ruby. His piece for Desert X, "Specter," is a ghostly rectangular shape that looks like an optical illusion. The bright orange color contrasts with the dusty chaparral and the white peaks of the San Jacinto Mountains, and as Ruby tells us, it's a color he associates with hunting season from his rural Pennsylvania upbringing. It also suggests prison uniforms and construction road hazards, a warning color that visitors have flocked to since it was installed.
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Iván Argote's point of view
Desert X Podcast
Five wood and concrete staircases make up Iván Argote's "A Point of View." It's no surprise that the security guard of the construction site asked if he could return with friends to have drinks. His installation for Desert X 2019, he says, is "about making a common place where we can have a dialogue," while offering new vantage points on the ecological and social issues surrounding the Salton Sea. Curator Matthew Schum says Argote is "able to create communities around the work that he makes."
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Gary Simmons recaptures memories
Desert X Podcast
"Recapturing Memories of the Black Ark" is a stack of speakers constructed out of salvaged wood from post-Katrina New Orleans. Performers rearrange the speakers and play music. Videos of the performances play on a loop, and the cigarette butts and beer bottles from the audience are left in place. LA-based artist Gary Simmons, known for his "erasure drawings," explains how the installation ties together dub pioneer Lee "Scratch" Perry, the Coachella festival, and the "Shangri-la" quality of the area.
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Kathleen Ryan constructs a Ghost Palm on a fault line
Desert X Podcast
Kathleen Ryan is a sculptor who has created an artwork for Desert X 2019 called "Ghost Palm." The transparent plastic and steel evocation of a full-size palm tree, with a skirt of acrylic rods, sits on the San Andreas at a spa in Desert Hot Springs. In this episode Ryan and Desert X curator Amanda Hunt reflect on moving out of the white box gallery; the “invisible mythological power” that drew Ryan to the site; and the inspiration from the iconic palm tree.
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Cristóbal Martínez of Postcommodity on listening to desert architecture
Desert X Podcast
Postcommodity challenges enthusiasts of midcentury modern homes in the Coachella Valley to look at these houses through new eyes. The indigenous art collective, made up of Cristóbal Martínez and Kade Twist, has created a sound installation for Desert X 2019 called "It Exists in Many Forms." It's installed at the Wave House, a midcentury modern home in Palm Desert that is being restored.
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Nancy Baker Cahill's ephemeral sculptures
Desert X Podcast
Nancy Baker Cahill reinvents land art with two augmented reality artworks, “Margin of Error” at the Salton Sea and “Revolutions” over a wind farm northwest of Palm Springs. Hear how she went about creating this "zero environmental impact artwork" that "marries the most natural environment to the most futuristic."
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John Gerrard on "Western Flag" and our shared petro-history
Desert X Podcast
On this Desert X 2019 podcast episode, the Irish artist John Gerrard discusses the ideas behind Western Flag (Spindletop, Texas) 2017, 2017-2019, located at the Palm Springs Visitors Center. This digital simulation depicts a flagpole spewing an endless stream of black smoke. The artwork makes visible the invisible gas responsible for climate change.
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Rasmus Nielsen of Superflex on "fish-friendly architecture"
Desert X Podcast
On this Desert X 2019 podcast episode, Rasmus Nielsen of the Danish artist collective Superflex talks about Dive-In, 2019, their pink coral-like art installation at Cap Homme and Ralph Adams Park in Palm Desert. It's an attempt to create "fish-friendly architecture" for a future in which rising sea levels bring marine life back to the Coachella Valley.
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Introducing the Desert X Podcast
Desert X Podcast
Desert X is a contemporary art exhibition framed by the mountains and desert of the Coachella Valley. On this podcast, we’ll introduce you to some of the artists of Desert X 2019. Their site-specific artworks take on big themes like fossil fuel use, rising sea levels, and class divides. Desert X runs from Feb 9 - April 21, 2019.
info_outlineOn this Desert X 2019 podcast episode, Rasmus Nielsen of the Danish artist collective Superflex talks about Dive-In, 2019, their pink coral-like art installation at Cap Homme and Ralph Adams Park in Palm Desert. It's an attempt to create "fish-friendly architecture" for a future in which rising sea levels bring marine life back to the Coachella Valley. He also reflects upon "extreme participation" and weaving stories and memories into public space. And he looks back at Superflex's "greatest hits" and finds there is a common thread connecting their work in biogas 20 years ago to their imaginings about a post-climate change future today.
Desert X runs from Feb 9 - April 21, 2019. Visit desertx.org for program information.
The series is presented by Lead Sponsor PROJECT EVELOZCITY, which is creating electric vehicles that will be available by subscription.