Fountain

As you drive down the grid of roads laid over the valley, the features of the desert recede and you focus on the signs of occupation, and the practical particulars of desert living. A cinder block homestead hut, built with a just-enough-square-footage-to-keep-squatting design, rendered historic by sand blasted paint and the caved in flat roof. The year it was left or if it was ever occupied is impossible to figure but its geometry seems to complement the Flat Land desert perfectly. A little further down, a split rail fence joins with hurricane fencing around a yard crowded by a defunct bus, a few prefab corrugated sheds, the original house, square with tightly covered windows, and a leafless tree.

There are also a few landmark plots, with traits running the gamut from small, beautifying gestures to lifelong endeavors, and each with corresponding lore around its inhabitant/creator. There is the house next to a school bus stop with plastic blue daisies planted next to the mailbox. In one of the canyons, there is a house set above the road, the walls are hand-painted with palm fronds and other alien tropical foliage in vivid green. The Integratron, built entirely of wood, possibly to harness some sort of restorative energy or for purposes of extra-terrestrial communication. And Noah Purifoy’s place, completely filled by assemblages of re-captured materials, an installation of the most sophisticated yard art, including abstract structures and a desert Parthenon.

—Kate Costello (from the HDTS 2 catalogue)