DAY 288

UNEXPECTED ART FORMS

Junk Art in the Desert

THE CONSTRUCTIONS AND COLLAGES OF NOAH PURIFOY

In the later decades of his life, Noah Purifoy became known for his assemblage sculptures created in the vast southern Californian desert. He was experienced in the use of objets trouvés (“found objects,” or junk art), having gained notoriety for creating “66 Signs of Neon” out of the wreckage of the 1965 Watts riots in Los Angeles.³⁵

After relocating from Los Angeles to the rural town of Joshua Tree, the artist found a clean, virgin canvas of desert land. (Ironically, he initially had a difficult time finding junk with which to sculpt, due to the fastidious recycling habits of Joshua Tree residents.)

Purifoy’s structures take a variety of forms. Some have a primitive, shamanistic look to them, evoking images of burial grounds and pagan ritual. Others appear post- and sub-industrial, including Shelter, which suggests a community of homeless squatters. Some sculptures, including one expansive “collage,” are so massive that they are fully visible only from the air.

Many of Purifoy’s constructions in Joshua Tree have a skeletal feeling of naked honesty about them. Lizetta LeFalle-Collins, curator of the California African-American Museum, once wrote that “the artist has peeled back the skin of a piece to reveal its interior life.”³⁶ —DJS