april 2023

taking a break from our 2022 scandinavian adventures to share some photos from desert X 2023. instead of trying to see everything in one day, we booked one night at dive palm springs, our favorite boutique hotel in the area. this allowed us to see the art at a reasonable pace and still get in chill time at the pool.

we threaded the needle of going one of the 2 weekends after coachella but before the exhibitions were over. it was 104 degrees when we arrived at the first site, so it was pretty quiet like we hoped, but we had to be wary of the heat and the sun. we’ll take some physical discomfort over crowds pretty much any day. an umbrella and lots of water and sunscreen was absolutely key.

since this was our second desert X, the first being in 2021, we were familiar with several of the sites already, making it easier to navigate to them as well as knowing what to expect in terms of parking and trekking to the installation itself. i was really glad they had something at sunnylands again because the gardens are just beautiful and worth a visit. especially with the palo verdes blooming.

*amar a dios en tierra de indios, es oficio maternal* by paloma contreras lomas.

the most interesting installation was a timed/ticketed installation by metabolic studio that took over a former pool club in the middle of downtown palm springs. the pool was filled with heavily polluted water from the salton sea, and a scupltural heart the size of a young blue whale’s has been in that pool slowly “cleaning” it over the course of desert X. a definite thought provoker at the intersection of art and environmentalism.