This Land is Ayin Es’ survey of the high desert of Southern California and what it means to possess, own, or hold land in the Mojave.
Es employs a sense of play in an attempt to change the conventional perspective of property ownership by removing the limitations of how we formalize these ideas.
By addressing the meaning of place and belonging, Es is asking, what does it mean to occupy the desert, and whose land is it anyway? They suggest that we instead hold the land in the limitlessness of our imagination where we can build upon its curiousness and visual possibilities. By looking into this otherworldly terrain, maybe we can find room to “possess” freedom rather than dominate or control the land. As Es states, “Isn’t it this point of view that attracts folks to come to the high desert in the first place?” and concludes that, “Since we are all stewards of the land, we should all be accountable for its wellbeing. Monetarily retaining ownership seems almost as absurd and abstract as possessing an acre of the galaxy.”
Now a permanent resident of Joshua Tree, California, Es is known for storytelling artwork and Artist’s books—collected by institutions, such as the Getty, the Brooklyn Museum, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts. They have also won a Pollock-Krasner Fellowship.