Militarized Desert: Life and Death in the Mojave at Mesa College Gallery
By Patricia Frischer
Anna Stump
Anna Stump and Ben Allanoff - Militarized Desert: Life and Death in the Mojave March 1 – April 7, 2022 San Diego Mesa College, 7250 Mesa College Dr., San Diego, CA 9211 Free Parking in Lot # 1. Park in student spaces only
I was so delighted to be able to actually go to a gallery exhibition again and Mesa College is making it easy to park for free right in front of their space on campus. This gallery runs by Alessandra Moctezuma never fails to intrigue and please.
Anna Stump and Ben Allanoff have been spending time at 29 Palms near Palm Springs and they have given new life to the idea of recycling. Taking useless bits of tin roofing, squashed oil cans, rusted hand tools even rocks and making them into not just a concept but a visual treat.
It took me a while to slow down and appreciate Allanoff's various assemblages. In fact, it was only when taking pictures with my phone that I realized that a group of stone slabs which comes with a request to reposition a random set of found objects, was actually in the shape of a bomb. In fact, I think all of the images of Anna Stump with helicopters signal war to me. Restricted No Shooting is a pretty good clue that these items are from a military base. The stones below have something called desert varnish on them. This mysterious substance has also been found on rock on Mars. Allanoff suggests this could be the matter of life itself. All of the sudden a box of rocks has meaning. Is that like spinning straw into gold?
Stumps works almost all contain images of low lying dwellings of some kind always with big skies. We see lustrous sunset, lightning strikes and any number of soaring birds. We can imagine the occupants but there is no sign of them. But somehow these homes don't look lonely, but appear as shelter from the action above or the harshness of desert life. In today's world, who isn't looking for safe shelter.
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