After a stunning Desert X exhibition was presented the ancient Saudi Arabian city of AIUIa last year, the immersive art exhibition now returns to Coachella Valley, exhibiting works from eleven artists from Europe, North America, and Southeast Asia.
“Contrary to the archetype, a desert is not defined by the absence of water. The desert landscape is formed by the memory of water,” writes Desert X co-curator Diana Campbell.
The temperate extremes of deserts around the world result in not just physical adaptations and structures of survival but also distinct social formations. The artl, presented in the landscapes of Coachella Valley that have inspired so many artists and architects over the years, aims to serve as instruments of self-awareness, allowing viewers to better realized the forces we exert on the world and the strength of of our collective impact. Questions raised include “how we design our environment, how we live, and how the messages we send that reinforce systems might or might not be beneficial for us.”
“I am inspired by water cycles, how water moves across solid, liquid, and gas states, and I hope that the show will help us imagine how our energy has a transference far beyond what we see just in front of us in our own localities in the here and now,” Campbell continues.
From Gerald Clarke’s maze-like Immersion structure and Matt Johnson’s Sleeping Figure assembly of multinational shipping containers to Héctor Zamora’s performance art and Tyre Nichols’ roadside billboards, different stories across a variety of mediums are scattered all around the valley for visitors to discover.
The Desert X 2023 Coachella valley installations will be free and open to the public from now until May 7. More details can be found here.
Participating Artists:
Rana Begum
Lauren Bon and Metabolic Studio
Gerald Clarke
Paloma Contreras Lomas
Torkwase Dyson
Mario Garcia Torres
Hylozoic/Desires
Matt Johnson
Tyre Nichols
Tschabalala Self
In other news, Venus Williams and Adam Pendleton are working on an auction to restore Nina Simone’s childhood home.
