AZ West Wagon Station Encampment
AZ West is an artwork located on over seventy acres in the California high desert next to Joshua Tree National Park.
Since it’s inception A-Z West has functioned as an evolving testing grounds for living—a place in which spaces, objects, and acts of living all intertwine into a single ongoing investigation into what it means to exist and participate in our culture today. “How to live?” and “What gives life meaning?” are core issues in creator Andrea Zittel’s personal life and artistic practice.
In 2017 I was invited to attend the two-week Wagon Station Encampment residency at A-Z West. Twelve invited residents stay in 9ft x 4 ft pods, made of wood and steel and raised a few inches above the ground. We ate and drank from bowls, and showered, cooked and lived outdoors. Every morning we participated in an ‘Hour of Power’ to contribute to the running of A-Z West. At the end of the residency, fellow resident Lorna Hayden and I were invited to have a two-day exhibition in the HTDS Head Quarters. We exhibited a game, some postcard photographs and an installation.
