Doomsday Créches
_I have passed through Kingman, AZ many times. It’s a perfect I-40 rest stop, near the Nevada and California borders, along historical Route 66. I’ve always been curious about it, but also felt strangely unwelcome, an experience echoed often to me by fellow travelers.
I have since learned that the Kingman area has long been a center for militias, survivalists/“preppers”, and white power groups. Looming large in the social imaginary of these movements is the idea that the End of Days is imminent.
My Doomsday Crèches are sculptural tableaux, modeled on traditional nativity displays but instead portraying scenes from the apocalyptic Book of Revelations in the New Testament. It is an outsider’s attempt to engage in discourse with a location that expects me to simply pass through._
Monday–Sunday, October 14–October 19, 2013
Kingman, Arizona
Directions: Take Andy Devine Rd (Route 66) east to Airfield Avenue. Turn right on Airway Road. Continue going straight after the paved road ends, and the road turns to dirt (the name fo the road will change to El Paso Rd). Once the road turns to dirt, reset your mileage meter. At 1.4 miles you will see a dirt road peeling off on your left. Take it. Follow this fire road for 0.3 miles, until you reach a clearing. Park and walk towards the wash.
OCTOBER 12, 2013 - OCTOBER 19, 2013
High Desert Test Sites hits the road for a full week of experimental art and exploration, from Joshua Tree to Albuquerque!
HDTS 2013, the ninth program in a series of free ranging and ever evolving contemporary art events, expands our range and depth to take in everything from Joshua Tree, California to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Roughly 60 new projects will take place over an entire week, during which artists and audience alike will traverse over 700 miles of desert roads to check out the new work and explore the hidden gems and diverse desert communities along this spectacular stretch of the Southwest.
Project sites include: Amboy Crater, Arcosanti, Area 66 (Yucca), Art Queen (Joshua Tree), Bluewater Lake State Park, El Malpais National Monument, El Rancho Hotel (Gallup), Giant Rock (Landers), Hill Top Motel (Kingman), Magdalena Ridge Observatory (Socorro), Mill Restaurant (Crown King), Montessa Park (Albuquerque), Palms Restaurant and Saloon (Wonder Valley), Petrified Forest National Park, Octopus Car Wash (Albuquerque), Pink Post Office Projects (Wonder Valley), Tamarind Institute (Albuquerque), Warehouse 1-10 (Magdalena), in addition to our regular HDTS sites.
The week’s festivities include a Saturday night opening dinner (first-come-first-served) at The Palms in Wonder Valley October 12, with musical performances by The Sibleys and The Renderers.
A zine-style publication, designed by Brad Hudson Thomas, with original texts by James Trainor and Eden Solas, will accompany the event.
