Tree of Life

While organizing the Joshua Treenial in 2019, I got a call from Joe Baker at the Palos Verdes Art Center to say that  they had an artist from Mexico who had just closed an exhibition at the center and that her work would be perfect for the Treenial. JT2019's theme was Paradise Parallax and the works were wonderful small oil paintings of naked figures seemingly being expelled from Eden along with other mythological themes. The center offered to transport the work, install it and sponsor the artist - it was a perfect match.

With the work installed, I finally got to meet the artist - Paloma Menéndez - and she was really delightful to have as part of the Treenial community. Her imaginative treatment of landscape and the human presence were inspiring so it was easy for us to offer her a residency when she enquired about one. Paloma proposed looking at all of the life forms that rely on the Joshua tree and treating this desert icon as an analogy to the Tree of Life or the Mexican Arbol de la Vida. She received funding from Sistema de Apoyos a la Creación y Proyectos Culturales (Fonca) and we set a date. Which twice owing to the pandemic.

Paloma was finally able to travel in mid-November, 2021 and got to work immediately upon arrival. She was experimenting with a new support for the paintings, Duralar, and with some new mediums for moving the oils around. I was able to arrange a field trip into the park with Mark Wheeler, a local biology and botany enthusiast / expert and past president of the local national park association in order for Paloma to get even closer to the subjects of her work. She left a for what she thought would be a few hours before lunch and returned just before sunset, elated and exhausted.

The artists intensive studio schedule paid off with a wonderful open studio exhibition of paintings, drawings and a wall of informational inputs. The event was well attended and several artworks found new homes that day. Many thanks to Paloma for her great energy and wonderful artwork. 

Contradictions

 In early 2020, I got an intriguing invitation from Barbara Gothard, a Palm Springs-based artist I had met several times at various art events. Barbara wanted to meet to discuss an idea. When we got together, it emerged that Barbara had come across the story of a group of African American homesteaders who had come to the Mojave Desert in 1910. She wanted to tell their story through an art installation and wondered if we would host the project at Boxo. It was a quick and simple yes.

In short order, we strategized and decided to apply for both CalHumanities and California Arts Council funding. Barbara did extensive writing which we supported and augmented with budgeting and admin details. The CalHumanities funding would be for a speaking program related to the project through which Barbara could spread the word. The CAC grant would cover the creation of the installation itself and a related catalog.

Barbara also started an intensive research period into the stories of the 23 settler families that began in early 2020 and continued up and through her residency in November, 2021. She titled her project Contradictions - Bringing the Past Forward. With word that she had received the CalHumanities funding coming first, Barbara set up a series of speaking engagements with a group of regional organizations including the Desert Institute / 29 Palms Historical Society, Copper Mountain College, and the James O Jessie Desert Unity Center amongst others. She also contacted the San Bernardino County Museum which agreed to host the installation post the residency as well as to hold several speaking programs. 

Once we had word of the CAC funding coming through, final dates for the residency could be set to coincide with the grant activity period. Barbara launched the speaking program in early October, 2021 and the residency took place in November, 2021. Barbara was also profiled by a local podcast regarding desert women and we both were interviewed by the local radio station Z107.7. Everywhere that Barbara went, her project inspired a lot of curiosity and conversation. 

 

Barbara decided to produce 23 artworks, one for each of the settler / families. She created the works using Procreate on her ipad and had them printed on raw linen. During her residency, she had studio visits by the DesertX curatorial team as well as some people on cultural tours of the area.

 

 The open house for the residency  featured 10 of the finished artworks as well as a series of sketches and prototype that Barbara had used to get to the final work. Barbara also created a map of the homesteading area on the floor of the studio.

The event was very well attended, the artist talk was broadcast via zoom and a healthy q&a discussion took place.

The exhibition at the San Bernardino County Museum will open January 14, 2022 with formal events in early February and will run until April, 2022. 

It has been an immense pleasure to work with Barbara on supporting this project's development and I have a learned a lot about our local social history for which I am greatly indebted to the artist.

In Tents

I first met Georgia McGovern and Sebastijan Jemec in August 2019 through an introduction from Vanesa Zendejas at A-Z West. The pair are an artist and architect/designer who were looking for a desert home for their project Terra Incognita. The project involves a series of site specific tents that rely on elements in the landscape to support the structure. The intent was to challenge people to go out into the landscape to spend time on their own, a wilding of sorts. The first of these tents was to be in Joshua Tree. 

I was immediately interested in the project and agreed to host Georgia and Sebastijan for  series of research visits leading up the launch of their project. After the first of these trips in 2019, the pair decided on a location on BLM land in the rocks behind the Boxo residency. The site itself was akin to a cave in which the tent would be inserted - this gave it a wonderful protected sense and allowed for the rocks to serve as supports.

The initial idea was that Boxo would host the finished tent kit as well and have people check it out for a day. Then I had a conversation with a lawyer who assured me that people hiking over the rock pile, possibly unwittingly trespassing on neighboring properties, and the possibility of injury, was just too much risk. Apologetically, I had to withdraw the possibility of keeping the tent locally ad we determined that the tent could be checked out through the mail and that the recommended hiking route would be from a conservation area to the south of the site.

After a couple of research trips, including one cross country trek during the pandemic, Georgia and Sebastijan were ready for the launch. We had originally planned an installation in the studio which would launch a hiking party to the site. However, the pandemic put the cabosh on that. Instead, a launch hike with overnight camping was scheduled in April, 2021 with a small group of friends, including Em Joseph, a filmmaker. Em captured the experience as well as some supplemental footage and edited a wonderful short film that contextualizes the project. In October, 2021, Georgia and Sebastijan introduced the project over zoom with a showing of the film and a conversation.

Many thanks to Georgia and Sebastijan for bringing Tera Incognita to Joshua Tree and to Boxo and I look forward to witnessing future iterations of the project.