In the Northern Hemisphere, fall can feel like a season of creative withdrawal: Landscapes are stripped back to their earthy skeletons, temperatures fall and our preoccupations take a turn for the domestic. But desert artists have a different way of relating to barren places: not as withered and uninspiring, but as blank canvases for huge works of art. In the 1960s, land artists and light artists—the former working with site-specific sculpture, the latter with natural and artificial illumination—beat a path to the deserts of the American West where they created enormous, often permanent works in the arid landscape. Desert art is now found around the world. House to Watch the Sunset was built by Swiss artist Not Vital near the desert city of Agadez in Niger. Constructed with traditional adobe bricks, this architectural sculpture sums up much This story is from Kinfolk Issue Thirty-Seven Buy Now Related Stories Arts & Culture Issue 47 Alice Sheppard On dance as a channel to commune with the body—even when it hurts. Arts & Culture Issue 47 Dr. Woo Meet the tattoo artist who's inked LA. Arts & Culture Issue 47 Walt Odets The author and clinical psychologist on why self-acceptance is the key to a gay man's well-being. Arts & Culture Fashion Issue 47 A Picture of Health Xiaopeng Yuan photographs the world’s weirdest wellness cures. Arts & Culture Issue 47 Chani Nicholas and Sonya Passi Inside the astrology company on a mission to prove workplace well-being is more than a corporate tagline. Arts & Culture Issue 47 Julia Bainbridge On the life-enhancing potential of not drinking alcohol.
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