Googly Eyes for Giant Rock
The oversized googly eyes offer up the chance to photograph and imagine the large rock as ones very own pet rock. Humans find (sometimes amusing) coping mechanisms to grasp the scale of ourselves relative to the vastness of nature and mankind’s blip in its timeline.
After viewing Michael Heizer’s Levitated Mass at LACMA, Hubby brought hand-held googly eyes and took photos of the rock with them in front of it; the exercise served to make the rock much less intimidating in her mind. When she saw Giant Rock, which is 10 times the size of Heizer’s, it called for a bigger set of eyes to produce the same result. The history of Giant Rock escalates the humor in animating it with googly eyes, since it still serves as a site for UFO enthusiasts to gather, and was leased for decades by the eccentric George Van Tassel.
Googly Eyes for Giant Rock will be on view all day Saturday and Sunday, October 12th and 13th, as well as Sunday evening for a Glow-in-the-Dark Cocktail Party!
Glow-in-the-Dark Cocktail Party With Googly Eyes for Giant Rock
Sunday, October 13, 2013, 6 pm (at the time of the setting sun and into the night)
Giant Rock, Landers
Directions: From downtown Joshua Tree, take Sunburst heading north, until the pavement ends at Golden. Turn RIGHT at Golden, and continue to the hard LEFT at Border. Follow Border until it turns LEFT on Reche. Drive another 2 miles and turn RIGHT on Belfield. You’ll see the Integratron on your right–turn RIGHT here, and follow the dirt road toward the left for about 2 miles.
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.
