We finally made it to our first true “Land Art” location, "Double Negative" created by Michael Heizer. Located somewhere outside of Las Vegas, pretty much in the middle of nowhere, we had to do some off-roading in the van to reach our destination. The pilgrimage was worth it. Watch out for rattlers.
We climbed into the bull-dozed gash to explore and dance a little. It truly made me feel smaller to be inside of this man-made hole in the ground. There were some interesting questions raised about Double Negative especially in comparison to some of the other sites we have experienced so far. The weather was lovely and no one has yet to become severely sunburnt.
Aliens showed up there too.
Ya win some and ya lose some when eating on the road but this little gem was a beauty. Lunch at Tiffany’s (The Sequel). All we needed was a fresh sub and a little bit of Hawaiian shaved ice to get the gang pumped for a hike. The jukebox was free.
We finally found our petroglyphs in the Valley of Fire, a beautiful state park in Nevada, while walking down a hiking trail. Brent was so pleased. This trail was kind of strange in that not only was it full of big-horned sheep; there was also a large population of women with Chihuahuas.
These ancient drawings were strewn across the rock formations in the valley. Our group had looked for some on a previous hike but we were unsuccessful. The rocks were easy to scale and wildlife was everywhere. It is pretty interesting to see all of the wildlife that such a desolate environment can sustain. The herd of big-horned sheep came very near to our group and other hikers on the trail but did not seem threatened by our presence. They kept their distance and gazed at us with shared curiosity.
This is how close we were!
Overall we got to see interesting interventions in the Nevada landscape: "Double Negative", a purposeful displacement of the land by an artist
and
The Valley of Fire, a portion of land that had been sectioned off and protected by an institution.
Are these appropriate uses of the land? We have yet to answer this question definitively but, surely, through experiences to come we will figure it out. However...the question may be the answer.
Back to Vegas for the night!
-Zach Hill
No comments:
Post a Comment