Biennale Dreams Pt. 1 | Written by Rob Williams | Read Pt. 2
Beach denizen, Biennale 2019
Biennale Dreams Pt. 1 by Rob Williams
It’s a swirl of color and sound and immersive experience. You do not simply go to Biennale, you descend into it and become completely absorbed by the experience. The town of Bombay Beach transforms completely into living art exhibition. There is music, painting, performance and installation all around and to fully appreciate the mad genius of the place is to walk through the estates treading carefully from exhibit to exhibit like a prowling cat in the flickering light. Imagine if someone put up an art gallery in the twilight battle of Hue in Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. There are enemies of complacency around every corner; in every dim lit warren bristling with glowing lights, pulsing music and swaying bodies. Many of the attendees dress themselves as objects de art. Last night I stood next to a woman whose hair was interwoven with fiberoptic threads while taking in “Voyage a Paris” an opera performed by Ariana Vafadari and Julien Carton and an entire clutch of people in pink rabbit costumes swam through the crown soundlessly. Even nature itself got in on the action as the moon loomed low and large and very orange over the glittering spinning lit up sculptures. I climbed the Palumbo plane (not for the timid and do not attempt it if you have been imbibing), I laid on mirrored pillows in the Barbarella House while silver spinning moon rocks danced around me. I explored the Number 2 Museum and crept into the photo array “A Girl Named N” like a prowler in the dark. Later lounging on a couch on the beach, a statuesque gothic executive chef with a mountain of sculpted dark hair chided me on the dangers of smoking while she praised Jesus and passed a spliff among her entourage and a pack of roaming chihuahuas dance around our feet and across our laps. She smiled and whispered, “This is only your first night and there will be so much more”
To be continued…
Above: Please excuse my up all night shaky camera, but this is just a taste of how amazing the sunrise opera at Bombay Beach Biennale 3-24-19
Above: Bombay Beach Biennale's da Vinci Fish at night. Read more about the da Vinci Fish»
Painting, cars Bombay Beach Drive In Biennale 2019
Ian Ruhter, Dead Sea Scrolls
Palumbo Plane
Outside day and inside night of the Palumbo plane, it is steep don't be drunk when you get in there. Last 20 feet is a vertical ladder.
The Death Ship rises again! Sean, John, Gordon and I spend a half day affecting repairs to Sean's Bombay Beach Biennale entry from 2018
John Murphy at the Barbarella House
"Biennale is a trip." – Rob Williams