San Andreas has a lot to offer for Art Enthusiasts. Not only at fancy art galleries, cinemas, or concert halls. It is a human need to express ourselves, no matter who we are or where we live.
The people of Sandy Shores display an impressive variety of art installations, showcasing their everyday life and giving critical societal commentary.
The Fragility of the heart
A shopping cart – symbol for online and offline consumption – combined with an empty package stating “FRAGILE”: Expressing the state of emotional fragility, and an emptiness we often try to fill by purchasing things we don´t need.
Trinity of Sand
Three sand coloured wood panels, held together by rusty steel ledges: Representing all shades of Rednecks (from very Redneck to slightly Redneck), united by their withered but indestructible will to survive even in the harshest living conditions.
Misguided
We might have the right tools to change the path of our lives (the overhead wire symbolizing energy, the cars representing our ability to move forward). But if we don´t pay attention to where we go, we might end up at a dead end, our souls rusting away like cars in the Alamo Sea.
Just do it!
A visualization Mark Twain´s quote: “They did not know it was impossible so they did it.”
Homeless, but not hopeless
This installation is about not losing hope in one of the most desperate situations: Homelessness. Many homeless people, living in the streets or in their cars, use gyms to keep up their hygiene, dreaming of a full fridge and getting back into the corporate world, where there are plenty of water dispensers.
Mind Block
A locked, barbed wire gate is seemingly keeping a small car from getting out of the lot. The focus on the obstacle keeps the protagonist from noticing the open way around the gate.
Never enough
City folk gentrifying rural areas are not only ruining the housing market for the locals, they are also mocking the less wealthy residents with useless extensions, like a fancy stone fireplace. Because the desert heat doesn´t seem to be enough for those who lost al common sense.
Buy my shit
A mocking display of how easily rich people are being tricked into buying nonsense for an extraordinary amount of money, as long as someone calls it ART!
Discussing Life and Art (and drinking Moonshine) with Redneck Artists.
How dare you
A visualization of the idiom: Don´t shit on my porch!
Good intentions
A recreation of the Simpsons Episode, where Homer tries to build a BBQ but fails miserably.
Don't ask
The excavation of sand, just to pile it up in the desert shows the absurdity of middle management decisions. Workers are expected to execute irrational orders without questioning, eventually leading them to walk away in frustration, leaving their tools behind.
Can't contain Nature
The pathetic effort of humans to contain (fences) Nature (the scenery). Nature always wins in the end.
Broken body
A forklift without wheels (a willing but disabled worker) surrounded by wooden pallets, barrels (available jobs) and a pile of tires, that might give its functionality back, but laying out of reach (walking aids, too expensive to buy, health insurance not covering it).
Broken by the system
Soulless and Faceless Corporations are squeezing out the last bit of energy of their workforce, until they break them and simply throw them away. Just like humans do with their soulless appliances.
Lost love at the end
A visualization of and contradiction to the German idiom: Old love doesn´t rust.
Blind to abundance
A waterless pool placed in the desert. Yet people still call for more sand (“Save the sands”) instead of calling for what they lack in life.
All Photos taken by Emma Payne.
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