Francesca Woodman, 1975
Marisa Merz, “Untitled” (detail) (undated), unfired clay, paraffin, copper wire, thumbtack, metallic paint, dried leaf, alabaster, plastic, paper, plaster, paint, graphite, colored pigments, metal coin, gold leaf, metallic pigment, pastel, and colored pencil, metal table, heads of varying sizes (courtesy the artist, Fondazione Merz, and Archivio Merz. Photo by Renato Ghiazza)
Queen of the Prom, the Range Nightclub, Slab City, California, from the series “Sweet Earth: Experimental Utopias in America” by Joel Sternfeld
When Camp Dunlap, a World War II Marine training facility near Niland, California, was closed in 1946, all of the buildings were completely dismantled, leaving numerous cement foundation slabs in the desert. Almost as soon as the government abandoned the site, “snowbirds” (campers from northern states in recreational vehicles) began to winter on the slabs, even though no running water, electricity or sewage facilities were available. Today at least five thousand snowbirds arrive each winter, and a few have become permanent year-round residents, despite summer temperatures that can reach 120 degrees. The snowbirds come with motor homes costing half a million dollars and they come with tents. Over the years, a true self-governing community has arisen, including a mayor, the Slab City Christian Church (in a trailer), the Lizard Tree Library (used paperbacks on an honor system), the Gopher Flats Country Club (gravel greens), the Oasis Social Club (combination meeting space/junkyard), a CB radio station (one half hour of purely local news, nightly at six p.m.) and the Range, an outdoor nightclub built by “Builder Bill,” complete with stage, lighting, bar, communal outhouse and several rows of salvaged airliner seats. The Range takes its name from an active bombing range located a few miles away, which makes the sight and sound of F-16 sorties a part of life at the Slabs. Moira, the Queen of the 2005 Prom at the Range, never got to go to her high school prom. From the portfolio, Sweet Earth: Experimental Utopias in America, 1982–2005
Chema Madoz
Tracy Emin
carnets de juin 26 Suite des Oreillers. Serge p.
Joel Sternfeld | Dacha/Staff Building, Gesundheit! Institute, Hillsboro, West Virginia, April 2004. Sweet Earth: Experimental Utopias in America
When Dr. Patch Adams envisions the forty-bed rural community health care facility that he refers to as “the free silly hospital,” he hopes it will be “funny looking, full of surprises and magic.” Adams’ desire to humanize healthcare has always taken radical form. From 1971 to 1983, he and nineteen other adults and their children moved into a six-bedroom home and called themselves a hospital. Three of the adults were physicians. They were continuously open to patients and saw fifteen thousand people over a period of twelve years. Initial doctor/patient interviews were three to four hours long, “so that we could fall in love with each other.” Since no donations were received, nor was there any outside funding, the staff eventually left and the hospital closed. This led Adams to his present period of fundraising, which he often does in the guise of a clown. A three-hundred-acre farm has been purchased in West Virginia—chosen because it is the most medically under-served state in the nation— and two buildings have been constructed. The Dacha/Staff Building was designed by the Yestermorrow Design/Build School of Warren, Vermont. Amongst numerous other unconventional practices, the hospital will not charge for its services and neither will it carry malpractice insurance. Healing arts such as acupuncture, massage, yoga, herbalism and faith healing will be integrated into patient care. Patients and staff will stay at the hospital, and forty beds will be available for “plumbers, string quartets and anyone wanting a service-oriented vacation,” reflecting Adams’ vision that the health of the individual cannot be separated from the health of the community. Although the free silly hospital is not yet built, the idea of it can and does influence the dialogue on health care delivery systems. From the portfolio, Sweet Earth: Experimental Utopias in America, 1982–2005