Just like home

We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started… and know the place for the first time.” 
~ T. S. Eliot, 1888-1965

The reason I originally chose to go to New Mexico was to see  the Bisti Badlands. I saw a photo of Bisti in  May while I was still at the Babayan residency in Cappadocia, Turkey. I was searching the internet looking for landscapes that I could possibly love as much as Cappadocia and the first image that came up was of Bisti and I was inspired all over again.

Not many people go to Bisti.  It’s very hot and desolate with wild gusts of wind that make you feel like you will be blown right off the earth.  There are no services, water, information or gift shops - just 45,000 acres of barren shale hills and surreal rock formations with no shade and no relief.

As for me, I really loved it.   I found it dramatic and beautiful and somehow strangely comforting, almost familiar.  Within moments I was happily climbing on the rocks, sculpting my body into the landscape and imagining all kinds of ways I wanted to move, different costumes I could wear and how I could film and edit these impromptu performances.

I had a large piece of orange fabric with me that I had bought earlier in my trip while I was in the Española area.  The orange was perfect in this colorless terrain and I began to play around with the fabric, responding to the strong winds and openess of the landscape.

It was hot and  I didn’t have the time I needed to work out my ideas, but happily my sister was there and she took these photos of some ideas in process.  Fortunately, she is a really great photographer and her images inspired me further.

I plan on returning to Bisti.  It is very close to Chaco Canyon and I have the idea to camp at Chaco for a month or two and use that time to explore these two locations in greater depth.  In the meantime, I am researching other badlands, petrified forests and great sand dunes.  The exploration continues.