Desert X: It’s Time to Remove the Orange Box from Snow Creek
Special Report By Ruth Nolan
^Snow Creek. Desert X Damage, Day 2, Feb 10 2019. Damage in an off road area with many
Bureau of Land Management
(BLM) signs that state "closed to vehicle traffic." Documented by Ruth Nolan. Trash left by people whose vehicle got stuck here. They didn't bother to pick up the road sign they used to help get out -- in the sand -- nor the giant water bottle they tossed out the car window as they took off. In an area with BLM signs clearly stating, "Closed to Vehicle Traffic." (All photos by Ruth Nolan)
March 23, 2019 - Coachella Valley CA - Dear Desert X: With all due respect to the artist, it’s time to remove Sterling Ruby’s industrial-sized, fluorescent orange cube, “Specter” from the Snow Creek site.
It’s time to do the right thing and remove this artwork now.
“Specter” is sited in a Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Area meant to protect the fringe-toed lizard and other threatened and endangered species. The Friends of the Desert Mountains and Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy have recently purchased land here to conserve the area.
In a matter of weeks, Desert X, you have undone decades of hard work done by these and other agencies and citizens to protect this area.
Extensive vehicular damage has already been inflicted on the open desert area immediately adjacent to “Specter” by untold numbers of tourists driving off Snow Creek Road and onto the area clearly marked with “No Vehicles” signs posted by the Bureau of Land Management.
^Snow Creek. Desert X Damage, Day 2, Feb 10 2019. Documented by Ruth Nolan.
This scarring of the alluvial fan on which the artwork sits can clearly be seen on many of the Instagram images posted by Desert X visitors, and continues to worsen.
Just so you know, vehicle tracks on the open desert can last for decades.
I am hoping, Desert X, that you do the right thing, and do it quickly.
You did the right thing by quickly removing the industrial equipment and storage container from the “Superflex, Dive In, 2019” installation at Cap Adams Homme Park in Palm Desert, presumably after I and other citizens called the City of Palm Desert to register concerns about damage to the natural desert area that was inflicted during this artwork’s installation and continued, frequent upkeep.
I’m still gravely concerned with continued visual and noise impacts to the endangered Peninsular Bighorn Sheep who are currently in lambing season in the immediately adjacent hills and mountains which are, incidentally, part of the Santa Rosa-San Jacinto Mountains National Monument, but grateful that you have made an effort to be responsible by protecting this area.
You absolutely did the right thing by proclaiming your support of Whitewater’s decision to cancel the Jenny Holzer large-scale light show at Whitewater Preserve in consideration of the Bighorn Sheep and wildlife there.
It’s nice to see that Holzer’s work remains part of Desert X with her “The Power of Words” showing at College of the Desert, an environmentally-friendly setting.
And yet the continued presence of “Specter” makes it clear that you aren’t quite living up to one of your goals, stated by Desert X Executive Director’s Jenny Gil to “introduce people to the desert’s fragilities and sensitivities.”
You have opened a Pandora’s box of ongoing environmental impacts to our endangered desert wildlands by providing GPS coordinates and Instagram invitations to this and other fragile sites.
There are infinite retweets of “Specter” being flashed around the world as I type this.
I cringe to think of what the long-term implications might be given that the damage there is already so deeply-entrenched by vehicle tires upon the helpless desert terrain, especially following the heavy rains and mud.
I also have many questions about the unclear process of how you were able to secure permission and proper permits for the installation of “Specter” in the first place.
The City of Palm Springs and Cal Trans have both confirmed that no permits were issued. It hasn’t been clear if required permitting procedures had been requested of Riverside County, but after repeated email requests made by a concerned Palm Springs citizen, Gil forwarded a brief email, dated February 13, 2019 nearly a week after “Specter” and the entire 55-mile swath of the wide-reaching Desert X show had opened across the Coachella Valley.
This email, which contained no formalized permit materials that one might expect to see for any land use project on public lands – especially lands in an area such as Snow Creek that are already designated as culturally and environmentally sensitive areas - contained a vague message from a single eastern Riverside County planning commissioner giving an after-the-fact okay for the project via email to Gil.
But at this point, trying to track down whether or not this email – and lack of disclosure of a formal permit approved in advance of the installation, making it highly suspect that an approved permit does, indeed, exist - makes the siting of “Specter” okay is beside the point. The damage to Snow Creek is already done.
And at this point, there is little time to waste in hastening its immediate removal, because environmental damage continues to worsen day by day at the Snow Creek site and will inevitably mount as the desert tourist season moves towards its peak during the months of March and April.
The BNP Paribas tennis tournament and Coachella and Stagecoach Festivals will bring many hundreds of thousands of visitors to the Coachella Valley before the season is over, many who will also very likely make stops to see the internationally-promoted Desert X installations, starting with “Specter” as they drive along Highway 111 towards Palm Springs and our other desert cities.
In addition, Palm Spring Planning Director Flinn Fagg has just filed a complaint with Riverside County code enforcement for investigation and possible citation due to illegal grading and other issues.
Please do the right thing and help take care of the desert instead of inflicting continued destruction and disrespect to this amazing, yet fragile and increasingly-endangered sacred desert place that people around the world cherish and love.
There is no other way to say it: “Specter” is both ethically and possibly illegally sited, and must be removed immediately. Nothing makes the placement of this installation okay.
Not even Art.
Ruth Nolan is Professor of English and Creative Writing at College of the Desert in Palm Springs, CA, and editor of No Place for a Puritan: the Literature of California’s Deserts (Heyday Books.) She may be reached at ruthnolan13@gmail.com
See this February 11, 2019 article in the Desert Sun.
More on Desert X by Ruth Nolan:
^Snow Creek. Desert X Damage, Day 2, Feb 10 2019. Documented by Ruth Nolan.
DESERT X DAMAGE, PALM DESERT. Day 2 of its 10-week run here across a 55-mile swath of Coachella Valley desert, coves and mountains. This is the Snow Creek-Whitewater site. BLM signs saying “closed to motor vehicles” yet cars all over the place, carving up the desert. Worse, I witnessed a car getting stuck in the sand; people pushed it out but left behind a huge metal sign and gallon sized empty water bottles there, not bothering to clean up. Does Desert X have any accountability for this damage? 68 more days of this. #BLM #DesertX #DesertXXploits #SaveCaDesert #palmsprings
^Off-roading across the desert used to be considered a bad thing. What is happening now where this is considered acceptable?
DESERT X DAMAGE, PALM DESERT. Day 2 of Desert X installation at Cap Adams Homme Park/Hike to the Cross Trailhead in Palm Desert. This quiet, ecologically sensitive park, situated at a portal to the Santa Rosa-San Jacinto National Monument has been irreversibly damaged by continued heavy equipment usage that I witnessed Friday afternoon and is also staged at the north end of the park. A road has been gouged through the center of the park by this equipment already and the biological life, such as bighorn sheep, in this area impacted heavily by last weekend’s noisy, large film screening into the installation itself. Photos taken by Ruth Nolan on Sunday, February 10. #DesertX #DesertXXploits #bighornsheep
^This gate is supposed to be locked to protect the area from vehicle traffic. On Sunday morning February 10 it was wide open. Presumably by Desert X.
^We do not want to see this on our desert!
^What's behind the "art" scene.
^Native desert vegetation here is carefully protected from visitors walking.
^Yet these "artists" are allowed to trample the desert with machinery and heavy equipment. This is unacceptable!
^This should not be allowed in a desert park.
^Heavy equipment driving in the desert and trampling wash vegetation.
^Unacceptable impacts to the desert.
Check out this video on Facebook filmed by Ruth Nolan of the off-raoding tresspass where visitors dricve over senstive desert habitats to view these "art installations."
