Unsettled unsettles...

The Nevada Museum of Art currently shows a museum wide exhibit called Unsettled, an amazing array of art work from regions they define as The Greater West.

Both terms are charged and intentionally pose more questions than they resolve… Unsettled implies many things including disturbance, unpaid, uninhabited, doubtful and mental, emotional or geological instability. When attached to the newly formed term, The Greater West, all forms of unsettled can be applied.

What exactly is The Greater West?

I have circled around this term for 2 weeks now.

America was founded on the premise that this was a great uninhabited land mass full of resources, “the land of take what you want” (Enid Blyton) involving a massive Empire ego and the idea that the colonizer was a superior race. “Empty” lands were fair game and their resources and native peoples could be conquered and converted, expanding the Empire and claiming the resources.

The Nevada Museum of Art’s written press releases and published book, (a clamshell design with no spine) attached to the show discuss The Greater West as an expanded idea of The West. This is a restructuring of our historical and geographic borders and boundaries, looking at the landscapes of the originally British based colonization, and how they have played out today across American territories and English speaking countries. Bill Fox proposes that The Greater West encompasses Alaska around the ring of Fire, excluding Asia and including South America, Australia and New Zealand. He places emphasis on the tectonic plates as a second geographic reasoning behind the line up of countries, in that “The Greater West was the last region of the planet to see habitation by humans because it took both changes in climate and technological innovations to make it possible” (p 177, Unsettled)

"Unsettled" the exhibition catalogue. Image by Nicolas Galanin

On entering the main body of the exhibition an overwhelming and delicious mixture of spice smells intermingle and waft through the air as ceramic plate after plate of piled up spices in intense colours come into view, this is the work of Sonia Falcone, Campo di Color points at the abundant resources that have been harvested and exported by the colonizers.

As you begin to take in the enormous show there is a third way of defining The Greater West. The regions which in the 20th Century and 21st Century the American nation has protected or commanded through its massive nuclear firepower capabilities and areas still considered unsettled that have been used as test sites. Nevada, Australian Central Desert, Marshall Islands, Bikini Atoll etc.

Chris Burden "All the Submarines of the United States of America"  from the 1890s-1980s

As a New Zealander I find being assimilated into the Borg of The Greater West problematic, not to mention there seemed to be no representation of works from New Zealand, Australia, nor the Pacific Islands. But then rebuilding our understanding of boundaries is a strange and interesting brain exercise just as strange as our town Wizard, in Christchurch, pronouncing that the world was round, we were standing upright and were therefore on the top. He rebuilt the map of the world with New Zealand at the top, most Northern country and pronounced us top of the world and therefore better than everyone else…. The Wizard’s reasoning always gave me a revised perspective of whose history we are reading and which maps we still use to navigate the world today.

Having said that, let’s just say the actual objects in the show are mainly concerned with the continental Americas, America and its territories, conquered, bought or walled off from attached countries. After redefining the concentration of the show, it is possible to listen to the voices that are represented here and gain some understanding of lives and responses to the world through art.

The show at first seems difficult to navigate, as it contains a huge variety of work from unknown artists, dead artists, 19th and 20th Century and contemporary living working artists. On 4th visit and having attended the Art + Environment conference 2017 it begins to make more sense. It is a celebration of the differences between us all that make life and culture interesting. The show is full of responses to the west today from Thlingit, American Indian, Mexican and many other diverse artists, alongside white American artists responding and bearing witness to the land and life in this region.

Unsettled is beautifully and compassionately researched, curated by JoAnne Northrup, and co curated by Ed Ruscha. Ruscha uses his own work as a framework for nearly every section of the show, which raised my eyebrow, but provided experiences such as the Chocolate Room, (cacao screen printed panels lining a room, wafting chocolate through the air),  and his version of the tensions implicit in The Greater West. However, this did make me wonder what the exhibition might have looked like if the co-curator was indigenous to The Greater West.

Ed Ruscha "Chocolate Room"

Regardless, I found the works of the indigenous artists most interesting throughout the museum. The contemporary works of today’s indigenous artists are less passive, perhaps less coded, and more aggressive than in earlier times. The works reinforce the idea of cultural collision, they are poignant and pointed. They leave an imprint.

 Thlingit artist Nicholas Galanin photographed road signs that show how ridiculous our presumptions have been… “Your inane Perspective” 2015 shows a huge green sign saying, “No Name Creek” with a very small sign with a very long native name for the creek below. His photograph “Get Comfortable” shows a road sign saying Indian River, River is crossed out and is replaced by the spray-painted graffiti word Land. Discomfort and implication seeps out of every part of these photographs.

Nicolas Galanin "Get Comfortable"

Wendy Red Star’s photographic idyllic dioramas of stereotypical little Indian girl in nature recreations instantly attracted my attention. From a distance, they look like sweet reminiscences to be opened and on closer inspection the diorama and bucolic scene falls apart as a cheap fantasy. The animals are blow up, made of plastic, the scene behind is a folded poster, throw away culture masquerading as idealized paradise.

Wendy Red Star (Apsáalooke/Crow) "Spring" From the series "Four Seasons"

The series of works by Mexican artist Ana Mendieta, show body impressions etched or dug deep into the earth and rock asserting her connection to the land, while in Desierto Guatemalen artist Regina José Galindo shows photographs and video of herself buried in a room of what appears to be golden desert sand. The Desert sand is in fact sawdust, speaking of the monocultures of non-native trees inserted into the land by the timber industry. Galindo exists in the room buried alive with only her head exposed, while visitors view her from behind a glass window, like a live natural history museum exhibit.

Ana Teresa Fernàndez is a Mexican American, her work Erasing the Border” is a timelapse video of a woman in a short black evening dress and high heels climbing up a ladder many times with a paintbrush as she paints out the border wall between America and Mexico in a pale blue so from a distance it becomes invisible. Connected to this work are a series she showed at the Art + Environment conference, of families that had been separated by the building of this wall having picnics at the beach, reaching through the giant girders to share food together. More heart-breaking images of separation followed when she discussed that during the Obama presidency, the wall had been heavily reinforced and only a tiny pinky finger could be inserted through to the other side to touch relatives and loved ones.

Da-Ka-Sheen Mehner inserts himself in (viewing the exotic) found studio photographs of Thlingit Shaman and other Thlingit important entities. He mirrors the original photograph with himself as Shaman or chief and carries the objects of his own life, work and identity, such as the camera, jeans and sneakers.

Da-Ka-Sheen Mehner "Finding My Song"

The absolute highlight of the entire show and Art + Environment conference was the performance artist Alison Warden AKA Aku-Matu. As she began to speak at the conference her voice sounded like the familiar and gentle voice of a grandmother, friendly, beloved, calming and hypnotic, telling her story. Further on Warden changes persona and relates the story of her mother’s life (one of the stolen generation forced to become whitewashed) in jarring, half wild emotional rap. The performance was startling disturbing and left nerves jangling, only to be followed by a third persona wearing a giant Alaskan style coat in loud searing colours with a head dress of plastic like a corona or the surrounding halo of an icon. This performance was even more astounding as she rebuilt new dulcet comforting tones and began to sing/speak “I am your ancestor from the future” looking every bit a futuristic but traditional entity whose voice and face poured out love and sweetness. The sound and words were mesmerizing and at the conclusion the audience was entirely entranced with her. The bravery, community spirit and depth of Alison/Aku-Matu’s work has stayed with me and I know with many other attendees.

Alison Warden AKA Aku-Matu

After experiencing Aku-Matu’s performances it was difficult to see many of the white American male artists work as much more than chest thumping or pointing at exercises in futility. Paul Kos Roping Boars Tusk 1971 is a video of an inexpert cowboy trying to lasso an eroded mountain in the distance. The western idealized version of Cowboyness, trying to dominate a Wild Western landscape. The Mark Klett photograph Bullet Riddled Saguara Near Fountain Hills, Az, 1982 shows the wanton destruction of a giant cactus surviving the extreme and arid environment, only to be shot to pieces, for fun, by new inhabitants of the Wild West.

Similarly Francis Alÿs records himself tracking and catching up with tornadoes only to be engulfed within a tornado, which is unstoppable and leaves him probably with a wastefully destroyed video camera and continues on its way across the dust belt farmland ripping up ploughed soil and taking it far.

Miss Atomic Bomb 1957 photograph by Don English sums up the super power mentality, the facile idiotic nature of popular culture and the absolute insanity that nuclear power and incredibly little comprehension of its monstrous destruction and mutilation of human bodies and existence, which had recently occurred at Hiroshima.

Miss Atomic Bomb 1957 photograph by Don English

The very real horror was played out in the assembled and remastered film footage, by Bruce Connor, of nuclear tests in the Bikini Islands in 1946. The footage reveals the giant mushroom cloud ascending and its following waves of effects engulf and miniaturizing huge warships, and finally the cameramen themselves.

On leaving the exhibition and the Art + Environment Conference I examined the shakey Western premise of possession and ownership, the conditioned notion of superiority and how it is all coming unraveled as history is rewritten to include those who were already living in the unsettled Greater West. Words relating to the queasy feeling in my stomach were transience, impermanence, shifting ground, shared time, temporary and disquiet. This uneasiness of being is reinforced by the ever-increasing spiral of questions arising out of this show Unsettled.

I consider this an exhibition and Art + Environment conference that has achieved its goal… to disturb the equilibrium, unbalance, destabilize conditioned thought processes and unsettle the settled.

Review by Frances Melhop

From Nevada to Rapallo

The artist's brushwork gives a sense of light that pushes colour to unexpected expressions, as if light came from his fiery desire, from a need that goes beyond any planning scheme. Thus, the artistic project is carried out and, as it takes shape, it generates more flashes and it raises comparative illusions which match reality. Only then does light express its contrasts, only then does the artist's brushwork choose an ephemeral pause before unveiling other surprises. In this way one stroke joins the next, through the unavoidable declaration of love for the object which has inspired it: a glimpse of the Mediterranean Sea, a corner of Lapland, a memory from the East, a trip to Nevada. Nes Lerpa succeeds in merging the emotions evoked by the images of distant places from one another, while spiritually converging in his brush stroke. The latter sweeps fast on the surface, tracing a truthful drive which belongs to the magical world of art, where there are no geographical frontiers when you evoke simultaneous stimuli at the right time. He manages to aknowledge and capture the amazement of discovery from each look. Thus, this exhibition, set in the ancient Castle of Rapallo, has the scent of all the times and places internalised in the impetuous creativity of this Danish artist. Other works of his, inspired by the same creative mood, are displayed in an exhibition in Reno, Nevada: this coincidence gives further reasons for considering and connecting the different settings caught by Nes's narrative talent. As a matter of fact, he is able to turn the wings of a flying butterfly into an intrincate work of pictorial allusions and perceptional illusions that follow a bright sunset. Or he unfolds the foggy veil of Piacenza hills, where he has his Italian residence, alternating with quick trips to Albissola, where he devotes himself and his colours to ceramics. All this takes place before going back to the Danish countryside, where he dives into other marine and greenery rapture . Admirably, he always finds himself in the recurring novelty of surprise. This enquiring and declarative behaviour lets us find out his inner path of truth -inaccessible otherwise,- by contemplating his paintings. The arid desert of Nevada, apparently emotionless, the changing shades of a Scandinavian forest, the rugged fascination of our Riviera, or the waning brownish-green mildness of some autumn landscapes, gather in his brush, which spreads sand on the colour, abundantly applied on his canvases, arranged on the floor, waiting for a further imprinting stroke. Now the flame caused by the flash of inspiration recurs as a liquid flame to be refined, guided, propped up and tempered through gentle tonality and pace. Then the first flame becomes a track, a trace, a path which is useful to the next step: it is the recurrent breath of life, waiting for what is coming. Indeed, when his works are arranged on the floor of his large studio or on the grass, outdoors, one next to the other, they are like the sheets of a kaleidoscopic tale, to be sorted out and reinvented every time, to be translated in an endlessly suspended time, with the regret of an undesired ending. As Borges wrote, "The sunset is always moving/ however gaudy or impoverished it is,/ but even more moving/ is that last, desperate glow/ turning the plain rust coloured/ once the sun has at last gone down." (1) The magical times of the Argentinian poet in Buenos Aires and Lerpa's endless space meet, merge and are reinterpreted in their communal desire to seize the invaluable essence of life, which is strangled by everyday routine. Only poets and artists are able to conceive such a complex undertaking. Therefore, Nes Lerpa's exhibition, linking Nevada and Rapallo, should not arouse astonishment or scepticism, but it should kindle the perceptive and cognitive interest of visitors.

Essay by Luciano Caprile

Art Critic, Genova, Italy

NOTES

1) Jorge Luis Borges, "Afterglow" in "Fervore di Buenos Aires", "Borges. Tutte le opere",  volume 1, I Meridiani, Mondadori Editore, Milan, 1984, p.53.

You can see some of the installations and work process of Nes Lerpa on this video by Kim Dang Tron.

My world in Italy

Nes Lerpa at the Nevada petroglyphs

An artist talk is to be held on Thursday the 22nd June from 6-8pm at the Historic Post office Reno, where some of Nes Lerpa's large scale works, that he created in Nevada are on exhibition.

Rogue Art Fair

So every year there are a multitude of art fairs in this month ...but this one is the best!

Not to be missed.

Every young, up and coming artist is here showing and vending their work at crazy good prices!

Rogue Art Fair was originally developed at the Holland Project by artist Sarah Lillegard. Luckily even after Sarah has gone on to be Coordinator of the MFA program at Sierra Nevada College, it has continued and grown stronger and even more brilliant every year, and we are not just saying that because there is Rogue in the title!

Color photographs by Jack Deming

Kiwi Artist - Sophie Scott, Silver City Artist in Residence ....number tw

Sophie graduated in 2011 with a BFA in painting from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. She creates art that is concerned with the tension of the urban and rural. Mostly working through a reductive process of stencilling, usually from black and white historic photos. Of her unusual artwork, she writes, "My work is primarily concerned with the stripping back of an image.  Through the stencil process I search for the point where an image forms and dissolves.  My work consists of two parts, the painting and the stencil. The stencils are residues of my painting process, which hold traces of the hand on the outskirts of a preconceived structure of voids. The editing process of the stencil reduces the image down to what is essential leaving a confetti of geometrics."

Both an artist and a shepherd: In addition to creating artwork that's acclaimed in both New Zealand and Australia, Sophie works as a shepherd on high country sheep and beef farms in the remarkably beautiful South Island of New Zealand

Parallels between hometown and the Comstock: She grew up on a high country station in the south of New Zealand bordering Lake Wakitipu in the Queenstown/Kingston region. Kingston, which was a main access way for the gold in the New Zealand gold rush, is now a sleepy village at the bottom of Lake Wakatipu, never to regain the population of the gold mining days.  These parallels between her hometown and similar settlements on the Comstock attracted Sophie to the area and it's unique history.

Sophie Scott Lake Wakatipu, New Zealand

Bathed in Sunshine, Covered in Dust

Sometimes it is good to dig backwards...this is a revisit... and it's still good!

Bathed in Sunshine, Covered in Dust booklet published by the Holland Project.

If you want to sniff out the fresh new artists in Nevada... this book is where to start

Bathed in Sunshine, Covered in Dust booklet

"Doublewide" by Alisha Funkhouser

"November Summertime" by Kyle Walker Akins

"A Little horse" Alisha Funkhouser

“TAHOE A Visual History”

The Nevada Museum of Art has launched an astounding and very well researched exhibition called “Tahoe A Visual History.” Since its discovery Lake Tahoe has been the focus of many stories, from the Washoe Indians who passed through each Summer, to the Comstock Bonanza when mining stripped the region of trees, to the creation of the railway from East to West, bringing all of the “kings” of photography surveying the area, to the people who holiday and boat on the lake to this day.

The exhibition starts by exploring the historical aspects of the region from the entrance on the second floor. Exhibits include a beautiful series of photographs by Anne Brigman from the early Twentieth Century. Her images incorporate ethereal nude women in the landscape. Brigman was recognized by Alfred Steiglitz, who exhibited her work in his gallery in New York several times.

This exhibition gives the opportunity for the public to see some of the legendary master photographers of all time. Images are here from Carleton Watkins, Timothy O’Sullivan, Ansel Adams and Edward Weston. The curation is impressive and there are many works together that are from private collections never seen by the public before.

Historic maps abound and there is a visual investigation into the construction of the railroad connecting the East and West of America and the deforestation of the Tahoe region in order to shore up mine shafts. Entire forests disappeared under ground. This leads on to the stories of the Chinese indentured laborers who built the railways and worked in the mines. Hung Liu has created an incredible installation made almost entirely of fortune cookies forming a mountain with a railway track running into the mountain. “Jiu Jin Shan (Old Gold Mountain)” is a great piece of haunting cultural history remembered in a modern way.

Visual renditions of the Donner Party expedition and its tragic end are found together culminating in a giant photographic piece by Shi Guorui. Shi has made an approximately 12 foot direct silver gelatin print from a pinhole in a tractor trailer of the Donner Pass. The image is reversed and is the eerie negative of what you would normally see.

An entire section is dedicated to the master basketry weaving of the Washoe people. Louisa Keyser otherwise known as Datsolalee reigns in a huge scale photographic portrait above a series of the most intricate baskets she made. Even now the patterns on the baskets are surprisingly modern and elegant. The craftsmanship is legendary for good reason. Impossible fine baskets with impeccable designs and structure fill the rooms. They were displayed floating in museum glass with the giant photograph of Datsolalee towering above the exhibit pieces. The information panels were well designed informative and fun to read, just enough to give the viewer the thirst for more research at a later date.

An impressive section of Old Master style landscape paintings was almost too much to take in, needing more contemplative time. Albert Bierstadt was well represented in this area, including a massive epic painting of Lake Donner and surrounds from 1873. Many pieces focused on the incredible transitional light that happens across the sweeping Western landscapes.

Finally the show progresses into the modern and contemporary art inspired by Lake Tahoe, with magical surreal oil paintings by Phyllis Shafer leading the viewer into the following galleries. In the main open area gallery are large installations by Maya Lin who concentrates her work on conservation and the environment. One of her pieces is made entirely of pins pushed into the wall and represents a massive topographical outline of Lake Tahoe. Its transience has a poignancy as when the exhibition is removed the pins will go back in a box and they will become just pins again, perhaps demonstrating the fragility of the lake.

Burning Man 2015

The Burning Man event is located once a year at the extreme and temporal Black Rock City, Nevada. During one single week 70,000 people from around the planet, found a thriving, living, breathing city on a deserted dried lake-bed, at high altitude, under extreme weather conditions, with "leave no trace" ethics and literally thousands of tons of artworks.

The Temple under construction

This year the artists with early passes were working on their installs in raging dust storms and winds up to 60 miles an hour. The conditions were relentless and extremely difficult, their projects and installs were all running behind schedule and the event kicked off with many projects still semi built on the playa, some were still in their packing crates. Not only are the artists installing and constructing giant structures they must also be able to withstand up to 100 mile an hour winds and not collapse on people. It is a huge undertaking and one done mostly for the love of art and creation.

The event this year was one of extreme physical endurance due to almost continual 4 hour long dust storms, where all sense of orientation is lost and goggles and dust masks must be worn continuously. My main concern was to maintain cameras and computer in order to work on my panoramic portrait project. Although the art works were phenomenal and outstanding as usual, the dust storms made it difficult to see, let alone find much of the art on the massive open playa. This however is what Burning Man is all about … One of their 10 principles includes “radical self reliance” as a concept of primary importance. The area is not easy, at about 6000 feet above sea-level, scorching desert during the day and freezing during the night, you must bring in all your own water, food, camping gear and lots of rebar for lashing down shade structures etc. Every thing you bring in must be taken out as well…there are no rubbish bins, no shops, no souvenirs, and the only thing you can buy is ice, at Arctica and coffee and lemonade at Center Camp.

Frances from RogueNV at Burning Man. Photo by Jack Deming

Incredible structures are conceived, designed and built in warehouses and studios and garages across America and even internationally.

"Temple of Mazu"

One of the key pieces this year was The Temple of Mazu, a project designed by “Kiwi” Chris Hankins, project managed by Nathan Parker and constructed in The Generator workspace in Reno. Hundreds of people volunteered to help the core group bring this project to fruition. The temple was constructed of wood with a giant lotus flower on the roof. Surrounding the lotus flower sat writhing metal dragons that breathed fire at night. Little wooden walkways with hanging lanterns ran from the main structure, in the manner of rickety Asian water bridges, and at night reflections of water in pink and blue were projected on the dust below giving the impression of cool calming rippling water below your feet. This whole structure was built with the knowledge that it would be burnt on the Thursday of the event. What always amazes me is that a real atmosphere of spirituality and calm can be generated so quickly at this event. A Japanese Buddhist monk asked if he could do some ceremonial blessings during one of the nights prior to the burn, circled by people watching he burnt incense and chanted.

"Papillon" by the Trinity Group

One of the installations that resonated with me was a smaller one called “Papillon” by the Trinity Group. It was a small old fashioned metal swing-set with a latticework of butterflies made from mirror pieces and mosaic glass with metal links. The pieces were suspended and light, fragile but strong enough to withstand the brutal elements at Black Rock City. Trinity Group are from the Bay area and create a piece every year. While being mainly see-through, the little pieces of mirror mean that you were looking at a mosaic of what is behind you as well as looking into the distance. Seeing backwards and forwards has always intrigued me as a photographer and storyteller.

Every year a main temple is built, where “Burners” remember their loved ones, place mementos of those who have died all over the walls, meditate, sing, play music or even just sleep. This year the structure was made in the form of a giant sound shell, winding around was a passage through the shell to arrive at a sculpture garden in the center. By the last day the temple is always alive with energy and prayers and wishes, it has become a focus for so many people’s personal spirituality while not belonging to any religion. On the Sunday the temple is full of photographs, poems, messages written on walls, dead people’s shoes and memories, and is burnt as the event draws to a close.

Burning Man is a huge notorious Art event with a fundamental ethic of acceptance for all the diversity of human nature, creativity and ways of being. “Radical Self Expression” is another of the 10 principles. This event gives the opportunity for all participants to do just that, to whatever level they want as long as it doesn’t hurt others.

Jack and Josephine

All photography by Frances Melhop unless otherwise credited.

Photograph by long time "Burner" George Post

Photograph by long time "Burner" George Post

Temporary city

Burning Man is a temporary city of approx 70,000 people created every late August on the arid "Playa" of the Black Rock Desert of northern Nevada. It's re-built with grid precision annually on an alkaline prehistoric lake bed. The city is completely vaporized without a trace when the event is over.

It's considered the hardest to get to event in North America. Ticket prices are prohibitive often $350-$800 each (cheaper if you're poor) and sell out instantly months before. The after-market ticket price soar far beyond, but the organization will void any tickets they catch at gouging prices. There is an ethic to gift tickets or re-sell at face value. The ticket and car passes get you absolutely nothing but entry into the hard packed dust perimeter. It's heavily patrolled by state and federal law enforcement.

It's said that describing Burning Man to someone who hasn't gone is like describing color to a blind man.  It has become a global cultural phenomenon that is being copied with other "Burns" from Australia to Africa. I ran into Brits stocking up their rental RV at a Reno grocery who said it's like a pilgrimage for them.  What started in 1986 as a small SF beach event to burn a wooden man has morphed into a monstrous Dada Brigadoon.

There is no commerce at Burning Man. No bands. No advertising. No promoting. No money. No garbage collection, virtually nothing can be bought. It's not a festival nor concert. Everyone must pack in and pack out what they need to survive. Normal vehicles can not be used once in. Instead an impossible collection of "Art Cars and Mutant Vehicles" sail across the desert amidst tens of thousands of bicycles. There is no trash or waste blowing about -- it's all very pristine generally (minus the Sani-Huts). Cars are searched at entry for prohibited items. Most at event are rigorously Eco to leave no trace. Even dirty water is taken out and not poured on the Playa. There are 10 Principals to be followed.

Burning Man has become a Byzantine ragù of Blade Runner, Mad Max, Hieronymus Bosch, National Geographic, the Phantom Tollbooth, High Plains Drifter, Lawrence of Arabia, Purim, Medieval, Victorian, Shinto and Wicker Man. It's like really camping on a moon of Star Wars. It's real and unscripted and sometimes fatal. Soaring Temples and boulevards and impossible art installations and events in sometimes choking dust storms. The holy and profane mix. From the nude to the elegantly top-hatted on rambling contraptions or pirate ships.

Past month I measured over 50 miles of dead stopped traffic trying to get in. The Black Rock City "BRC" created is approximately the size of downtown San Francisco. At night it's a bewildering and often scary throbbing neon Tokyo underwater on acid. Flame throwers and lasers and nightmarish blinking machines pierce the harsh black cold night from horizon to horizon. My first time, I was lost in near panic by 4 a.m in a freezing desert in a swim suit and rusty bike. But Burning Man promotes and teaches radical self reliance.

The cream of the cream of Silicon Valley execs and Hollywood get themselves there and mix anonymously with doctors, architects, old hippies, artists, dancers, clerks, fashion designers, royals, models, housewives, monks, CEOs, artists, roofers, stock brokers, Parisians, detectives, college students, infants all living in tents and trailers and most offering open doors to hospitality. Norwegians, Brits, Israelis, Dutch, South Americans, Polynesians, Brooklynites, Japanese all swarm in the dust in their keffiyehs and goggles.

Free bars and bicycle fixing camps are set up. There is unconditional generosity. A stranger might hand you a freezing Popsicle in the hot desert or spritz your parched back with a mister, or hand you a frozen bag of steak or bottle of whisky or handmade jewelry and disappear. Keep a metal cup with you, as there are no disposable ones at that draft beer bar they corralled you into.   A thick book of the 10 days of events is handed out for those that actually have time in the chaos to read it.

Reno is about 120 miles south of the event. The tribes gather there every late Summer from around the world to stock up their 80 gallons of water and dry ice and petrol cans and spare bike chains and crates of alcohol and sunscreen and top ramen to make the ascent. I call it base camp and am a resource for any Cambridge alumni brave, curious, or dumb enough to go.

J D Deming

Reno, Nevãda

photography by Frances Melhop