Other Desert Cities

Fragrance notes: Agarwood / Mesquite / Sandalwood

If you have ever driven from Los Angeles to The High Desert you’ve seen the control city guide sign on the eastbound Interstate 10 marked “Other Desert Cities”. It’s an invitation in to the world of this place. 

The valley of wind turbines almost like pre-apocalyptic sculpture. The periods of expansion, just flatness, a rim of mountains in the distance.

A recent history of artists escaping the city: Andrea Zittel’s “Prototypes For Billboards” series — one says: “These things I know for sure: #14. We are most happy when we are moving forwards towards something that is not yet attained.” Noah Purifoy’s Outdoor Art Museum — a pièce de résistance of detritus and abandoned objects that invites and jokes and haunts. John Divola’s images of dogs chasing cars and a series of timed, self-portraits running out in to the desert titled “As Far As I Could Get”.

250 million years ago the basin of Joshua Tree National Park was under the ocean. Nowadays, if you search for it, you can find a message in stones, almost written to be read from a plane: “THE BOTTOM OF AN OCEAN OF SKY”.