Bailey Anderson is an artist and a co-organizer of the Desert Biennial Project, a temporary outdoor exhibit that drew around 400 visitors to Apex Dry Lake, about 20 miles north of Las Vegas, on Oct. 18. An abridged version of that show, Selections From the Desert Biennial Project, is on view at the Holland Project, 140 Vesta St., in Reno, through Nov. 29.
What was the Desert Biennial Project? What did it look like?
It was between two solar fields in the stunning Apex dry lakebed, where the mountains surround this “blank canvas,” where 107 artists each had their interpretation of “gravity” (this year’s theme), with sculptures sprawled out all across the landscape—bright colors, and sculptures that changed over time. The work had a great conversation with the sky and the power lines on Interstate 15.
How big was the event’s footprint?
It was a quarter-mile in each direction.
Afterward, you brought the artworks to Reno?
Laura Esbensen (another Las Vegas artist) threw together a really fantastic selection of artists from the Biennial. That show came up, I think, a day after the actual event ended, so we shoved Iulia (Filipov-Serediuc, another artist) in a U-Haul, and she drove all the way up to Holland and essentially erected all of that almost instantly with the help of the fantastic Holland Project people.
Are there any Reno artists in this show?
Absolutely! Tanja Hester is a new artist who I’m really excited to meet and bring on board. There’s also Isabel Whitlock, who is an emerging artist I think is really fantastic, along with several others.
There were so many different styles and vibes at the actual outdoor Desert Biennial. How did you decide which parts of it to put indoors, in a gallery?
Laura was inspired by the by seams—like sewing seams—and how works come together, material-wise. (Reno artist) Aiyana Graham’s shattered ceramics and pill bottles are fused together with grout. Eva Shipley’s work is sewn together with panels. An artist who goes by “_gmikz” made a massive door that fuses all of these assumptions about femininity together in an almost-abject-pink sparkling door with spray foam and palm fronds and the whole works. It’s really a cool piece.
Can artists sign up to participate in future versions of this project?
Our call for curation for the next project will open up, I believe, sometime early March, if any curators or artist groups are interested in designing the theme for the next Desert Biennial. That information will be on our Arts Community Coalition Nevada website, accnv.org. Also, desertbiennialproject.com, and then both of our Instagrams, @accnv_org and then @desertbiennialproject.
What types of art are you looking for? What are the parameters?
Some of the sculptures really made an incredible impact in the landscape. More specifically, work that played off of the natural or manufactured features in the region were really stunning. So, Abney Wallace’s piece worked with the slight breeze that was happening across the landscape, and Sarah Odom’s teardrops look stunning against the backsplash of where the solar fields are. … This is a unique opportunity to not have the security of the white walls and silence of a gallery.
Do things need to be weatherproof?
I recommend it. Otherwise, be OK with things having permanent damage to them, like dust or wind or things like that. … In the future, we won’t be accepting 2-D works on temporary walls. It will be completely specific to contending with the landscape, and the works and the proposals that do that will be the ones that are selected.