fly to el paso, rent a car, grab some tamales, drive 3.5 hours west-northwest. you end up in marfa, tx. a neat place, with yurts. art's not bad either.
donald judd
john chamberlain
dan flavin
roni horn
more judd
exactly what it says
(L-R) a mallory, some buttered toast, a beezus, a coffee mug
is a round tent with an internal support structure and a central hole in the ceiling for ventilation. nearly all yurts are weatherproof but some are poorly insulated against the below-freezing nights of the far west texas high desert.
the winds have stopped, it's cold out and bright, and the heat is on. robert byron's road to oxiana recalls a much earlier time in travel, and neil young and crazy horse are on the turntable.
marfa is 3 hours fast drive from el paso, which has few charms for me except a panoply of tamale shops. in marfa, you can see donald judd's 100 untitled works in mill aluminum. the pieces are all of the same external dimension, but inner volumes are all variations on a theme and no two are the same. in the light that washes in through the enormous windows on the east and west walls, the mill aluminum surfaces of these massive boxes dissolve and become transparent. these two images are of the inside of the second shed. an unsettling yet quiet place, where solidity and evanescence coexist.