This project is my little attempt at land art. I gathered dead trees from the deseart and replanted them, in a shape that resembles a half moon. Concentric patterns are raked on the ground on some days. Solar-powered LEDs climb the branches, both as a night-time safty measure and as a hint to, in some sense, a new kind of life. I call it 圆缺, Yuan Que, a word for the moon cycle from old chinese poetry.

My friend Yin was kind enough to perform an original choreography on this site.

This piece is very much inspired by, and pays homage to, the tradition of land art here in the American west. These pieces have changed how I understand we may live on this overwhelming, open, vast land.

 

Sun Tunnels Nancy Holt, Sun Tunnels, 1973–76. Great Basin Desert, Utah. Photo by James Fox, courtesy Holt/Smithson Foundation

 

Sun Tunnels Walter De Maria, The Lightning Field, 1977. © Estate of Walter De Maria. Photo: John Cliett