Arid Zone Utopia by Gina DeGideo at Gallery 100, 2012 / HD South 2014

ARID ZONE UTOPIA

I remember a place of natural beauty, dusty bike trails, collectable rock formations, decaying trash blown from far away, the dead and the live coyotes, the exploration, the moments of shade under Mesquite trees, and the physical connection to the earth.

As an artist and native to the land now known as the East Valley of Arizona, my experiences with this place are familiar, but also ever-changing. While my memories, and ability to recreate them with only a short walk or drive, are still intact, it seems that a having a more mediated experience with the landscape is now what is most preferred.

I am a foreigner to the new ideals of the dwellers in my homeland. Awkward and fantastical landscapes bombard my daily life and heighten my curiosity of this sterile scenery, which could’ve only been dreamt up on movie sets. My interest and coinciding rejection of these places fuels my desire to question the influence of the human on the land and consequentially, vice-versa.