Desert X Podcast

Sterling Ruby's fluorescent orange monolith

"I love getting out of a gallery," says Sterling Ruby. His piece for Desert X, "Specter," is a ghostly rectangular shape that looks like an optical illusion. The bright orange color contrasts with the dusty chaparral and the white peaks of the San Jacinto Mountains, and as Ruby tells us, it's a color he associates with hunting season from his rural Pennsylvania upbringing. It also suggests prison uniforms and construction road hazards, a warning color that visitors have flocked to since it was installed.

Iván Argote's point of view

Five wood and concrete staircases make up Iván Argote's "A Point of View." It's no surprise that the security guard of the construction site asked if he could return with friends to have drinks. His installation for Desert X 2019, he says, is "about making a common place where we can have a dialogue," while offering new vantage points on the ecological and social issues surrounding the Salton Sea. Curator Matthew Schum says Argote is "able to create communities around the work that he makes."

Gary Simmons recaptures memories

"Recapturing Memories of the Black Ark" is a stack of speakers constructed out of salvaged wood from post-Katrina New Orleans. Performers rearrange the speakers and play music. Videos of the performances play on a loop, and the cigarette butts and beer bottles from the audience are left in place. LA-based artist Gary Simmons, known for his "erasure drawings," explains how the installation ties together dub pioneer Lee "Scratch" Perry, the Coachella festival, and the "Shangri-la" quality of the area.

Kathleen Ryan constructs a Ghost Palm on a fault line

Kathleen Ryan is a sculptor who has created an artwork for Desert X 2019 called "Ghost Palm." The transparent plastic and steel evocation of a full-size palm tree, with a skirt of acrylic rods, sits on the San Andreas at a spa in Desert Hot Springs. In this episode Ryan and Desert X curator Amanda Hunt reflect on moving out of the white box gallery; the "invisible mythological power" that drew Ryan to the site; and the inspiration from the iconic palm tree. "In my piece," Ryan says, "it's the palm trees that are natural. It's us and what we're making that's unnatural."

Cristóbal Martínez of Postcommodity on listening to desert architecture

Postcommodity challenges enthusiasts of midcentury modern homes in the Coachella Valley to look at these houses through new eyes. The indigenous art collective, made up of Cristóbal Martínez and Kade Twist, has created a sound installation for Desert X 2019 called "It Exists in Many Forms." It's installed at the Wave House, a midcentury modern home in Palm Desert that is being restored. Their work uses the natural acoustics of the undulating wooden roof to play a seven-channel sound piece that consists of field recordings and interviews with midcentury modern enthusiasts. Listen to Martínez explain the thinking behind the sound work, in which you'll "experience the comfort and the vision of the home, but in relationship to the sonic iconography of anxieties." This series is presented by PROJECT EVELOZCITY, which is creating electric vehicles that will be available by subscription.