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SAHARA DESERT — March will mark the 17th anniversary of a desert art project that was completed in the eastern Sahara Desert, and the exhibit is still there today.
The land art project was done by the D.A.ST. Arteam, which was founded in 1995 by Danae Stratou (the installation artist), Alexandra Stratou (the industrial designer and architect), and Stella Constantides (the architect).
On D.A.ST. Arteam’s website, Danae Stratou explained her inspiration for art and reasons behind her projects.
“I imagine two parallel realities in the way that we view the world," Stratou said on the site. "There is the world inside and the world outside of us. It is through the senses that we are able to connect the inside to the outside world. My whole life, including the choice to become an artist, has been an attempt to research, to understand, and to connect these two parallel realities. To bridge what is within to what is without ….”
Stratou said that she uses art to bridge these two "parallel realities" together. She explains it as a journey, beginning with a starting point in the external or internal world, and then transforming into the other. She said art is used as a physical way to immerse people in the journey.
With this explained, the team gave its explanation of what the journey or meaning of its desert art project was. They expressed on their website that “the project is rooted in our common desire to work in the desert. In our mind’s eye the desert was a place where one experiences infinity. We were addressing the desert as a state of mind, a landscape of mind.”
The idea of infinity and no limit on time was illustrated physically in the art project that spirals out of a central point. The art project started with the internal world, the experience of infinity, and transformed the idea into the external world, the physical art illustration done in the desert.
The art project has lasted for 17 years and can still be seen from Google Map images. Enjoy the breathtaking pictures of the art project.
Kailey McBride is a student at BYU-Idaho with a major in English and an emphasis in professional writing. Email: mcbridekailey@yahoo.com.
