Taming Horses

2007

Photographs and photobook.

Neither the desert nor gambling are open arenas; their spaces are finite and concentric, increasing in intensity toward the interior, toward a central point, be it the spirit of gambling or the heart of the desert – a privileged, immemorial space, where things lose their shadow...
J. Baudrillard “Desert Forever” from America (1986)

From accompanying text:

In the New Mexico desert, the Winslow Meteor Crater viewing binoculars are all pointed at its shaft of scientific endeavour. Immediately, and with excitement, I recognised the viewing window in the wall as that in Richard Misrach’s ‘window’ of 1982. At Badwater salt lake – the second lowest point below sea level in the northern hemisphere – I stood in the midday heat waiting for some temporary visitors.

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Entering the Valley of Death, the rent-a-Jeep cruised over the smooth mounds in the road like an off-shore swell. In the rear-vision-mirror appeared two fire trucks approaching at lightning speed. They passed quickly, and I sped up. Remembering the couple cheeky beers I had at lunch, I soon thought the best of it... We were soon greeted by a roadblock and told we could go no further, “A holiday trailer has blown-up all over the road.” We decided to retreat to Panamint Springs for the night. A wise move that led us the next morning to Ballarat (amazingly named after the town in Victoria); the ‘ghost town’ and last stop before the infamous Barkers Ranch, Charles Manson’s former lair. The place seemed something like a dumping ground for both ‘The Family’ and military activities that go on ‘over the hill’ at China Range.

Driving is a spectacular form of amnesia. Everything is to be discovered, everything to be obliterated. J. Baudrillard “Vainshing Point”, from America (1986)