Desert solitaires: The Mojave Project humanizes a landscape of extremes

Article by Roberta Werdinger

Stringfellow will share her ongoing exploration of the natural and cultural aspects of this unique and often little-known part of California, which she has been documenting for twenty years in a series of creative projects.

The Mojave Desert occupies almost 50,000 square miles, most of it in southeastern California and southern Nevada. While the Death Valley region contains the lowest point in North America, much of the area lies between 2,000 to 5,000 feet. Joshua trees, with their striking, spiny silhouettes, are native to the area and can be viewed in abundance at Joshua Tree National Park, especially in the springtime when the trees sport large white panicles (clusters) of flowers. Mountain ranges and rock formations in the Mojave are tinted in exquisite washes of reds, browns, whites and greens; in the desert, in general, rocks are a living force, attracting rock collectors and gem aficionados on expeditions both professional and personal. And–in case you were wondering, in this year of drought in Mendocino County–the Mojave receives an average of five inches of precipitation a year.

Stringfellow, a Professor at San Diego State University’s School of Art + Design and a 2015 Guggenheim Fellow, creates multimedia, interdisciplinary events that tell stories about place. Weaving together oral history, scholarship, photography, music, film and other forms, her projects aim to shed light into as many aspects of the various landscapes of the Mojave–ecological, geological, and cultural–as possible.

One such project, Jackrabbit Homestead, exists as a book, a photography exhibit, and an online multimedia presentation documenting the legacy of the 1938 Small Tract Act, which brought homesteaders to the Morongo Basin region near Joshua Tree National Park. Many of the houses built in the mid-twentieth century by settlers looking for clear air or new chances are now abandoned, while some are reinhabited by artists and others seeking opportunity and renewal. Stringfellow has also written about the sacred song cycles that helped reconnect members of the Chemehuevi band–one of several Native desert-based tribes–to their land and make needed ecological repairs. Another dispatch, as The Mojave Project calls it, considers the role of the Hollywood film industry in film-making in the desert, where severe and yet majestic backdrops created staging grounds for greed, desperation, and other–often extreme–human expressions. (A treasure trove of information can be found at https://mojaveproject.org.)

The desert has always been a place where the human body, mind, and spirit meets and exceeds its limits. Both sacred and profane impulses are played out, some playful–such as the land speed racing trials held yearly at El Mirage–and some harmful–the Nevada Test Site, which set off 100 nuclear test bombs near Las Vegas between 1951 and 1963, sickening people and cattle. While the vast landscape can seem inhospitable, it actually is a host for a variety of plant and animal life forms, which have adapted to the often extreme conditions in remarkable ways.

“Most people either really love it or hate it,” Stringfellow says of people’s reaction to the Mojave Desert. She observes that most travelers just see it as a place to get through on their highway expeditions between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, rather than as an end in itself. “I’m really looking at this extreme landscape,” she continues. “It presents certain kinds of culture and different sights that you can’t find anywhere else. I want to open it up so people see this kind of culture that I know is present here, but may not be for someone who is just going from Point A to B.”

When creating her projects, Stringellow uses audio recordings where people can explain their own lives. “I get really excited talking with people and hearing their stories,” she says. Chance encounters while driving through the desert can lead to new material. In spite of, or maybe because of, inhabiting a landscape that can quickly become hazardous to people and where human settlements are sparse and widely spread-out. “My practice is really social practice. It’s about conversations with people, sharing ideas, educating, turning people on to stuff.” She wants to “invite them to look further, look closer, come out and experience.” After all, desert cultures are well known for their hospitality.

Kim Stringfellow’s talk can be accessed here, or by going to www.gracehudsonmuseum.org and scrolling down the Events page. For more information, call the Museum at (707) 467-2836.