Joshua Tree, in the Mojave desert in rural California is about as remote a place for a light-based art installation as you could think of but that hasn’t stopped Artist Phillip K. Smith III from turning a deserted 70-year-old shack, ‘Lucid Stead’, into an art phenomena that has garnered the attention of world-wide media.
Smith, who owns the five-acres of land that the shack is on, left it untouched for nine years before unveiling his project in October. Using the decrepit wooden shack, its splitting wooden beams and warped nails, as a skeleton; he clad the entire shack in mirrors and added surreptitious solar panels on the ceiling which power a complex, programmable LED lighting system that can be seen in the shacks windows and door frame at night.
The idea is that the mirrored panels reflect the desert’s emptiness and light, creating a transparency. He explains: “Lucid Stead is about tapping into the quiet and the pace of change of the desert. When you slow down and align yourself with the desert, the project begins to unfold before you. It reveals that it is about light and shadow, reflected light, projected light, and change.”
The project was originally expected to be a two-day event, but since it has been so popular, Smith now plans to live nearby over the next year and document the project’s evolution.
Matt Derody