Page 36 - DreamScapes Magazine | Winter 2023-2024

UNORDINARY PLACES
INSIDER TIP
Some claim they’re UFOs. Others say they’re mirages or distant headlights. Whatever you believe, the Marfa Lights reportedly hover above the desert on the south side of U.S. Route 90, about 14 kilometres east of Marfa.
By the late 1970s, Judd had become a renowned sculptor. Longing to escape a Manhattan art scene he found increasingly claustrophobic, he remembered the Chihuahuan Desert land- scape that had captivated him as a teenager. He purchased the abandoned Fort D.A. Russell on the edge of Marfa and began set- ting up what is now the Chinati Foundation, an unusual museum of contemporary art.
ART FOR ART’S SAKE
Today, buildings scattered across the former military site are home to challenging artworks.
On my visit, I’m particularly taken with untitled (dawn to dusk), a 2016 work by Robert Irwin. It consists of an entire building, where natural light pours through regimented flanks of windows. Interior spaces separated by transparent fabric walls are alternately light and dark. The long, silent corridors provide room for my mind to wander. I connect with that piece much better than I do with Judd’s landmark installation, 100 untitled works in mill aluminum. It’s probably just me; other visi- tors appear fascinated by the huge metal boxes installed inside two former artillery sheds.
The presence of Chinati drew artists and other creative types from around the country to Marfa. Today, the town seems to hum with the sound of unseen artists hammering metal, sawing wood or spinning pottery wheels behind studio doors.
Or perhaps that hum is the sound of an approaching freight train on the railroad line that still slices through downtown, between Marfa’s domed 1886 courthouse and my digs at the mod- ernist Hotel Saint George. As I settle into bed on the last night of my visit, a muffled train whistle lulls me to sleep. Do I dream of Prada shoes and James Dean, aluminum boxes and agave-dotted deserts? If I do, I don’t remember in the morning. DS
36 DREAMSCAPES WINTER 2023/2024
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TRAVEL PLANNER
For more information about Marfa, see visitmarfa.com. For Texas travel tips, go to traveltexas.com
PHOTOS: VISIT MARFA/CHARLES DAVIS SMITH | LAURA BYRNE PAQUET | VISIT MARFA/CHARLES DAVIS SMITH. OPPOSITE: SANDALS RESORTS | BEACHES RESORTS | LISA KADANE