Peter Fend
Ivanpah Maps, 2018
Graphite, colored pencil, and blood on reconstructed map
Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection
Gift of the artist
2018.01.01

Peter Fend has created a unique place for himself in contemporary art. His body of works — drawings, writings, altered maps, documents, and installations — collectively argues that global civilization should be reorganized in sympathy with the geographical dictates of natural water catchment systems. “Could a post-war art and architecture change the world, so bringing it more into line with nature?” he asks. “If art is ‘that by which nature makes more nature’, then why not have art reconcile our civilization with nature?”

Pursuing his vision, he has collaborated with scientists, television stations, data collectors, and organizations around the globe, shaping new proposals for sites as far apart as Puerto Rico and the Mediterranean island of Sardinia. This map was created in a Las Vegas hotel room one evening to illustrate a talk he gave at the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art on January 16th, 2018, after his work, Comparable Sites for Water-Cycle Restoration, had been on view in the museum’s 2017 exhibition, Preservation, curated by Aurora Tang. The talk focused on regional water basins and the Ivanpah Solar Power facility across the border from Primm, NV, in California. He said the solar panels were a danger to the local ecosystems, particularly birds. An accidental cut on his hand produced the crescent-shaped smear of blood at top right. (DKS)