Ketchum, ID
It's best to arrive in Sun Valley under the cover of darkness. The valley is so deep that it's easy to mistake the lights marking the top of Baldy and the other peaks as stars. I enjoy this entrance into Idaho because it establishes a standard of slightly distorted reality.
It was under this guise that I found myself noticing a large slanted piece of corten steel slowly collecting snow in the middle of a field. There is only one man who could be responsible for constructing such a thing. Previously I've appreciated the spatially deformative and acoustic qualities of his work, but seeing one of his pieces in the snow did a lot to humanize the material. While exploring the various passages the corten melted away underneath the cover of snow to become pure phenomena while simultaneously being highlighted in contrast to the stark white blanket. That there were two of us in the middle of a field in Idaho trudging around and making the first footprints in weeks made the experience even better. A private affair. My own private Serra.
But anyways, you'll have to wait until January 17th 2004 to see the images, at which point they will be leaked one per day.
See also: A letter from Ketchum, and some pictures from the same weekend.
--Posted 12/31/03 04:39AM