MARFA, Texas
Thursday, January 22, 2009 at 11:53AM I do not get out of the city all that much. It’s an ever rarer opportunity when I find myself driving 16 hours in the vast expanse high desert of far West Texas.
The town of Marfa is said to have been named after Fyodor Dostoevsky novel The Brothers Karamazov; In the 48 hours I spent exploring I found many unusual curiosities in Marfa.
The Chinati Foundation Is known in the art world as the largest public museum for the permanent installation of sculpture in the world. It houses the works of Carl Andre, Ingolfur Arnarsson, Roni Horn, Ilya Kabakov, Richard Long, Claes Oldenburg, Coosje van Bruggen, David Rabinowitch, John Wesley, John Chamberlain, Dan Flavin, and it’s founder-Donald Judd. It was Judd’s goal to bring art, architecture, and nature together in order to form a coherent whole.
Prada Marfa
Marfa Mystery Lights
According to the Handbook of Texas Online, "...at times they appear colored as they twinkle in the distance. They move about, split apart, melt together, disappear, and reappear. Presidio County residents have watched the lights for over a hundred years. The first historical record of them recalls that in 1883 a young cowhand, Robert Reed Ellison, saw a flickering light while he was driving cattle through Paisano Pass and wondered if it was the campfire of Apache Indians. He was told by other settlers that they often saw the lights, but when they investigated they found no ashes or other evidence of a campsite.
I am left thinking... if all these minds saw something great I suppose I can included myself in the bunch?
Travel
Reader Comments (3)
ohhhh i love the prada photograph. is that really a go in and shop store? or is it a fake. like the kind of prada bags you can buy on the streets of china?
Thanks for asking Jess!
To answer your question-yes it is real Prada merchandise, but no you would not be able to purchase any of the items. It is a hermetically-sealed replica of a Prada boutique displaced in the vast desert. The installation was conceived by two artists Elmgreen & Dragset in 2005. Possibly as a statement of the hyper commercialism of the new millennium? If you play extra close attention while watching the show Gossip Girl (one of my al time faves) in Serena Vanderwoodsen and Lilly Bass' residence notice in the entry way a very large emblem of Prada Marfa, among other greats of Contemporary art.
yes i have noticed that in Lilly Bass's entry way. and i am also a gossip girl addict. omg!