Rancho Mirage

Sunset was approaching and we didn't have much time anymore.

We really wanted to see "Lover's rainbow", by Mexican artist Pia Camil. It was an identical set of two rainbows set at the border, one in Baja (Mexico) and the other one in the Coachella Valley, in the US. We only visited this side, obviously.

This was fun and playful. You wouldn't be able to tell from far but the installation was made of rebar. This is what the website said:

"Exposed rebar usually signals development, but too often in the Mexican landscape we see those dreams thwarted and abandoned. Historically, rainbows have symbolized rain and fertility. Located in desert territory, the act of bending the rebar into the ground is a way to re-insert hope into the land."

After visiting the rainbow we went to Palm Springs and looked for Mary Kelly's installation "Peace is the Only Shelter," a set of fake bus stops that evoked Cold War antinuclear activism and its significance amid today's tensions worldwide. It had several bits of information on it and I really liked it.

We run out of time and the last piece we got to see was Western Flag (Spindletop, Texas) 2017, by John Gerrard, which depicted the site of the 'Lucas Gusher' - the world's first major oil find, in 1901, now exhausted. The site was recreated on a screen, as a digital simulation (obviously, because it wouldn't make any sense otherwise.)Read more