Month: April 2015

Early morning start (7 am! For me as a late riser… ts, ts. But too late to join the guided tour in the morning in Marfa), bringing Adrian’s son to school first and then heading towards Marfa in 3 hours. For me, a very exciting landscape: the Plains or/ and desert (not easy to differentiate), mountains, different kind of plants (again: not easy to tell: palm tree or cactus…) and as it is springtime: flowers everywhere. Did not expect that – from blooming little flowers by the wayside to cactus flowers in the desert. Uh, gosh, they just did not let me off the leash there … perhaps because of the snakes or the barbwire?

And I saw deer! Cows … no horses yet.
Even the mountains are very different in their appearance.
Quick stop at a service station; for the first time in my life I saw a real sheriff – although I did not really recognize him without wearing his uniform.
Border Control! Lucky that Almut carried her and my passport and the customs formula – they checked it then and Thomas’ ID. Uff … Thomas was sweating.
And we nearly missed the famous Prada Store by Elmgreen and Dragset – this is so absurd, in the middle of nowhere. Absurd but exactly this is the reason why this work is so appealing. A Prada Saloon… 😉

Finally we made it then (thank you Adrian for driving all the way; and: finally a few horses) and stopped at the Chinati foundation. Actually, there are two foundations in Chinati fighting for the right to be THE foundation connected to Donald Judd. Little shopping there and then lunchtime in the restaurant ‚Capri‘ (horrible pricing, but good, nice environment to hang out, had the chance to meet and greet many dogs  (do not miss the garden)). We, the dogs, running around, locals and tourists mixed …

2.30 pm the day tour continued with us, starting with the 6 old military barracks (from World War 2!), now containing Dan Flavin’s work only – neon works, of course. For that reason alone, the contrast between old military usage and new setting with art works is outstanding – in this area, in the desert.
The guide gave us our own time to have a walk through the buildings (we were 7 people all together – so easy to manage). Although I know the works of Flavin and saw many of them before – this was really different: all the barracks are in U-format and the Flavin works are placed at the end of the two side wings coming from the open end.

My impressions were (as far as I can remember it – even a dog’s ‘human brain’ has its limits):
Barack 1: Net (red/ green) I saw nets on the wall after having looked at the pieces))
Barack 2:  Headache (or: neon green is not for me; again red/ green but different than in B1)
Barack 3: Surprise 1 (blue + yellow = pink; blue + pink = purple)
Barack 4: Painting 1 (same as B3 but the 2 pieces in each wing leaning against each other and gave me the impression that they are paintings)
Barack 5: Surprise 2 (purple green; PINK, PURPLE; soft&mild, very subtle)
Barack 6: Painting 2 (colors? but: like paintings the neons were leaning against each other plus: refections on the windows inside and to be seen also from the outside

3 other buildings (old cantinas and stable) (sorry, cannot remember the artists…except Roni Horn) but most impressive to me were the text works. And – obviously pre-minded – the text work with the word ‚green‘ in lines and columns was the strongest – I could even see the strong lines. And Roni Horn referred to the mining history of the area with her heavy but decent conical copper sculptures on the floor.

The Oldenburg sculpture is odd – not really good in my eyes.

Last things we saw at the foundation were the 2 x 50 Judd pieces – just amazing – even more when you are looking at them with the sun.

In town then  – the PAISANO HOTEL: Wow! With beautiful little shops! The hotel where scenes of ‚Giants‘ were shooted, a court building (really big), old cinemas/ theaters, shops (even a barber shop ;-)), then – as always – again a coffee stop for TT and all of us). I am always happy to have some water in this hot environment.

And back again – with a double rainbow behind us (they say that there are hidden treasures where the rainbow touches the ground…); I’ll be back – as an artist and/ or trail rider dog (Texas Mountain Trail…).

P.S.: Mind the time change in Marfa!

have been visiting the AT&T Stadium // Dallas Cowboys Stadium this morning. Really huge (80,000 visitors; can be compared to our Olympic Stadium in Berlin).
Ha, and Lisa (surprise!) was guiding us there together with the tall Phil. One more the educational, the other one the story teller. Very cute combination.
Impressing stadium. Ah, got a song: Step it up,

lounges and suites everywhere, Art !!! (what has been the reason to be there), dressing rooms … every cheerleader has her own twitter account. And both – dressing rooms for players and cheerleaders have the same size and furniture!
But: the stadium itself is so impressing … big big big. The screen in the round – oh my gosh …
Texas Stars everywhere – even the gully covers are stars, THE center carpet and, and, and … I have been so deeply impressed that I appeared unnaturally shy and respectful. And I was asking myself: where are the horses and the cowboys? Ah, football, OK, missed that, sorry.
Do not forget the shop at the end of your tour – only had a quick sneak but I am sure it is worth it to buy some branded *star* presents.

After a busy week at the art fair and the 11 (!) hours in the plane to Dallas in my box this has been another big event for me that made the journey worth it. (I did not know at that time that Almut and Thomas would take me on a plane again – to El Paso with me, grrr.)