Chaco Canyon

The first stop off point on the second trip was Chaco Canyon, an ancient anasasi indian site believed to be a mecca for spiritual worship. A potent and powerful place, there was definitely a strange energy in the air. We spent the day with Anna Sofaer of the Solstice Project who made major findings on the site in the late 1970s and has been committed to researching the site ever since - see the link to the solstic project on the links section.

A week back in Albuquerque

A pit stop back in town gave us enough time to clean some of our clothes and some of our bodies and throw a part before being back on the road again sunday morning of the 27th September. On the friday night we all went to the "dispersal or return" exhibition at UNM gallery. I was collected works of Land Arts students from the previous 10 years - see link

http://unmartmuseum.unm.edu/exhibitions_events.html

More Swell

I love how little Lauren and Joaquin look on this picture!

I left my sleeping bag outside all day and a lizard crawled inside! Luckily I felt it before putting my feet into the bag!

San Rafael Swell - THE COFFEE POTS!!

We had an idyllic few days at the San Rafael Swell, everyone chilled and and warmed up after a cold time at spiral jetty. Getting to the Swell was a bit hairy, the road had eroded and we had to try and rebuild it to get the van through. Everyone was relieved to arrive safely!

Spiral Jetty

Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty is situated in a strange and hostile landscape. This place, Rozel Point on the northern tip of lake Utah oppressed me into intense emotions. Never had I been to such a alien landscape, yet never had I been anywhere so exquisitely beautiful. Lake Utah was an old inland. The saline only supporting a weird bacterial life which makes the water an eery pink on a silver shore with a black basalt shore line. Walking along the crisp salt crystal encrusted beach the terrain is littered with corpses of insects and bird that had been drawn into the landscape, then trapped, murdered by the heat, the lake of water. Drawn in by the beauty and left to die on the shore. I found some intensely beautiful corpses.

I wrote a poem whilst I was there...

She cried a thousand years or more,

Cried out her demons and fears,

And the sun beat down upon the shore,

Upon her salty tears.

For a time her sea was still,

Upon her salty shore,

And the violent sea, a deep blush red,

Abayed to the deep sea floor.

Upon the winds,

Upon the clouds,

She called to life around,

"Come to me , stay with me,

Make love upon my ground."

On the winds and on the clouds,

They came from miles around,

And struck by the beauty of the silver shore,

Made love upon her ground.

The violent sea abayed no more,

And the clouds swirled all around,

The coupling life was murdered,

Dead upon the ground.

She cried a thousand years or more,

For the death upon her shore,

As the sea a deep blush red,

Did batter her once more.

nancy holt - sun tunnels

Visit to one of the largest copper mines in the World!

casino project CLUI

project at CLUI

the town is kind of a strange little island of contradictions within an alien landscape.

Casinos, religion, world war 2 iconic delapidated buildings, salt flats and ancient seas...

I thought it was ironic that one of the 3 main casinos was called montego bay and I started thinking about the area as an ancient inland sea (which it was thousands of years ago)

I started thinking about bays, haven, islands, in the area there are rock formations which would have been island at one point.

I was really interested in these juxtapositions so based my work their on filming and photographing inside and outside the casino.

I've posted some pictures but the most interesting stuff was video which is still in the edit!

CLUI and Wendover

The Centre of Land Use Interpretation is in Wendover Nevada. Its a strange little town. Home to a World War 2 air base,the centre over looks the anola gay air port hanger (anola gay, as in the plane which dropped the hiroshima bomb). Wendover is half in Utah and half in Nevada the state border goes right the way through the centre of town. One side is higher religious mormon and anti gambling, drinking and prostitution and the other side is a weird gambling, drinking and prostitution mecca, think budget vegas and your on the right lines. Surrounding the strange little town is salt flat terrain. The bonneville salt flats are near by.

Time to update!

I've been out of range for a good 10 days, but I'm now here in Wendover, Nevada. As I sit here I amsipping a glass of wine facing the anola gay airport hanger, opposite a military zone, behind me are mountains, in front of me are the bonneville salt flats, and to the side of me is the twon of wendover a drinking, gambling and prosituting blip of a toenm which people are flown into and flown out of for weekends of low bugdet indulgence. The whole thing is amazing and seeing it through the perspective of CLUI - centre of land use interpretation is amazing. CLUI was established about 10 years ago patly because of the amazing cultural position wendover occupies as a mid way point between new york and san fran it played an important role in communications, firtsly throught he pony express then as the midway point for the telegraph and then the telephone. CLUI amongst other things offer artists resdiencies which have produced some amazing work with slants on communications, environmentalism, polictics, culture, art, history.

Before getting here on Monday we have already had an amazing trip! I'm being called for dinner so I'm gonna post a load of photos next time I'm on.

Ms Greenwald and I have a blast driving to CLUI

more joes valley

My camping spot

Kevin, the friendliest nicest shepherd in the world ever!

Joes Valley - high alpine site

Working at Muley

It's strange how the desert make you think of water. At times at Muley my brain would trick me into thinking that if I looked up I would see the sea. It felt like we were on a high cliff over looking the ocean. The terrain below would once have been carved by the melting of the ice, cutting into the rock. Now we looked on down and down into the ancient sea bed. "The Presence of Absence" was the term I coined for it and it would go round and round in my head. The shapes I made try to respond to ideas of empty volume, water, weight, space, place and time.