A mountain-shaped cage of yellow metal mesh stands in the desert near Palm Springs, California, looking like a sinister border detention pen. Herds of people mill around inside, as if trying to find their way out of the tortuous enclosure, squeezing their bodies through the narrow passages of this wiry labyrinth as the midday sun beats down. One intrepid figure finally breaks free and begins teetering across the sand in snakeskin heels, back towards the minibus. These are not immigrants trapped in a Trumpian processing centre, but art world luminaries, here to sample the latest edition of the biennial outdoor sculpture jamboree, Desert X.
The chainlink ziggurat is the work of the British-Bangladeshi artist Rana Begum, whose ethereal installations of crumpled metal mesh more often evoke innocuous pastel clouds. Here, she has taken inspiration from the ubiquitous fencing material of the American landscape, used to enclose everything from suburban front yards to high-security military compounds, and crafted something altogether more unnerving. It feels like a monument to the settler urge to enclose the pristine desert landscape, an endless fence twisted into a disorienting spiral, waiting to confound all who enter.
