Desert X 2023: Big Visions for Big Spaces

Article and photos by Barbara Kerr

Desert X has returned to the Coachella Valley.

From March 4 through May 7, Desert X 2023 is showcasing dynamic work by artists from Europe, North America and South Asia with intriguing installations located across Desert Hot Springs, Palm Springs and Palm Desert.

Desert X 2023 Co-curator Diana Campbell (left) is interviewed by regional television.

The 2023 exhibition supports the mission of Desert X: “to create and present international contemporary art exhibitions that engage with desert environments through site-specific installations by acclaimed artists from around the world.”

The artists and leaders of Desert X 2023

Left to right: Desert X Founder & Board President Susan Davis, Artistic Director Neville Wakefield and Executive Director Jenny Lin

Art engaging in issues and curated by place

As Desert X reminds us on its website: “Contrary to the archetype, a desert is not defined by the absence of water. The desert landscape is formed by the memory of water.”

In “*Amar a Dios en Tierra de Indios, Es Oficio Maternal”* by Paloma Contreras Lomas, *visitors encounter a dated car that has “screeched to a halt in Sunnylands.”*

In the work by Paloma Contreras Lomas, “tangled limbs of two mysterious characters wearing long hats sprawl out of the car and onto the site’s pristine, manicured grounds.”

As Desert X notes: artist Paloma Contreras Lomas “exercises a playful sense of lightness to draw the viewer in to ponder heavy issues that are rarely addressed in Mexican society.”

Describing Desert X 2023 as “art engaging in issues,” Artistic Director and Co-Curator Neville Wakefield said: “A place is a story told many times. This is an event curated by place.”

Artist and Palm Springs Art Museum Board of Trustees member Phillip K Smith III visits “Immersion” by Gerald Clarke.

Gerald Clarke is an artist, university professor, cowboy and Cahuilla tribal leader. A Desert X notes, the maze-like structure of “Immersion” invites “visitors to walk on it and move according to instructions driving a game of cards, rewarding the player with new ways of viewing and understanding the landscape.”

Co-curator Diana Campbell added: “Places are shaped by people and people shape the world.”

“Pioneer” by artist Tschabalala Selfis described as “a monument built in homage to the collective foremothers of contemporary America.”

As Desert X notes: “Placed in the California desert, Pioneer exists as a figure that is simultaneously born out the historical event of America’s creation and one that has an ephemeral quality, untethered by any moment in time.”

To Campbell, Desert X asks the question: “How do we make the invisible…visible?”

“*Searching for the Sky (While Maintaining Equilibrium)”* reflects on “cowboy culture” by replacing the bull component of a mechanical bull “with a flat, geometric, reflective surface, slowing down the machine’s movement to reveal, little by little, what this object really is.”

Artist Mario García Torres points out nuances of his work – “Searching for the Sky (While Maintaining Equilibrium)” – to Desert Hot Springs Council Member Gary Gardner.

To that end, Desert X leaders believe that the 2023 artists have created works that “make visible the forces that we exert on the world: how we design our environments, how we live, the messages we send that reinforce systems that might or might not be beneficial for us.”

Photographs by Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old Black man who died in January after a brutal beating by Memphis police officers, appear on billboards along Gene Autry Trail in Palm Springs.

The lead lawyer representing the family of Tyre Nichols described the billboards the first major exhibition showcasing the work of the aspiring photographer.

In three previous exhibitions in the Coachella Valley (2017, 2019 and 2021), Desert X has drawn an estimated audience of 1.25 million locally. When you consider those who visited a Desert X project in the AlUla desert of Saudi Arabia in 2020 – and those who learn about Desert X on its website and through a documentary about the 2021 exhibition – their reach is even wider. As of this year, Desert X has showcased 70 artists from around the world.

Crews complete work on “*Namak Nazar*,” where Himali Singh Soin and David Soin Tappeser of Hylozoic/Desires invite visitors to think through ecological loss, the loss of home and seeking shelter.

If you go

Produced by The Desert Biennial, a nonprofit organization, Desert X 2023 is free and open to everyone. A free app – available at the Apple and Google stores – is the best way to navigate the exhibition.

Co-curator Diana Campbell has also emphasized the importance of more than 100 volunteers who will support Desert X across the region, providing information and answering questions.

They will also – as Diana Campbell noted – have another vitally important role: encouraging visitors to “slow down and really experience the moment.”

Barbara Kerr is a freelance communication specialist with a passion for writing about people, the arts and special events. Inducted into the Dayton (Ohio) Area Broadcasters Hall of Fame, she is a past chair of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) College of Fellows.