Artist Kenny Scharf takes a step back to photograph his work “Bombay Boom” which combines painted children’s toys with an existing structure as a commentary on the over-consumption of plastic.
The event’s co-founders, Tao Ruspoli and Stefan Ashkenazy, hope to make Bombay Beach a new destination for artists year-round.
Local children accompany the event’s co-founder, Italian-American aristocrat and artist Tao Ruspoli, on a large berm bordering the beach. The berm was built in the 1970s to protect the west end of the town from fluctuating water levels.
Mark Wrathall, a philosophy professor at the University of Oxford, gives a lecture on “The Temporality of Decay.”
A single balloon was installed in this structure by the artist. The graffiti already present on most of the abandoned buildings in town blurred the line between art and defacement.
Participants view an art installation of milk cartons affixed to the side of a building.
The choice for Bombay Beach as the home to an event featuring such conspicuous consumption, wealth, and pedigree was not by chance. Ruspoli said, “Imperial County is the poorest in California, and this town, on some levels the most godforsaken in California, had nothing to show for all this work…not one gallery, not one photo on a wall. So the idea was to flip it all upside down: to get great artists, known and unknown, to come and make art specifically for the town.”
At the time of the event, the two counties in California with the highest poverty rates were Los Angeles and Santa Cruz. It remains to be seen if the organizers’ efforts act to revitalize or to gentrify.
A resident watches as a truck that became lodged in the sand is extracted. The beach’s sand is composed of sand, dust, and decaying fish which turns into a dense sludge when wet. New concerns have arisen over the town’s air quality being affected by the presence of selenium, which is being released from the evaporating lake through the sand, and is toxic to humans in large quantities.
The corner of pavement marks the edge of the one-square-mile town. Most residents use golf carts for local transportation.
Some structures were treated with only small artistic displays and many others were left unadorned.
Attendees make their way from the town to the beach. Though this was the first year of the event and no dress code had been established, most participants’ attire could be identified as something similar to that of Burning Man or Coachella.
A Bombay Beach resident observes festivities on the beach.
Lily Johnson-White, heiress to the Johnson & Johnson fortune and majority funder of the Biennale, expressed that the location of the event was intended to bring awareness to the environmental issues plaguing the area. What critics might call exploitative “ruin porn,” Johnson-White maintains is meant to reimagine what accessibility to art can be and undermine the “highbrow” nature typically associated with it.
In its inaugural year it is yet unclear how the environment or local population will be served by this event.
Participants explore a former residence converted into an art gallery.
The smell of fish in various states of decay permeates the town’s air and remains as a vestige of the once-abundant lake. As the lake bed receded, the runoff chemicals that were in the water became exposed to the air. Most residents left the area due to concerns of air toxicity in the 1980s.
Interior installation by New York-based artist Jen DeNike. DeNike created this portion of her installation using only objects she found in the abandoned residence.
Local residents pass through the Hermitage Museum. The museum was named for the West Hollywood boutique hotel, the Petite Ermitage, owned by co-founder and hotelier Stefan Ashkenazy. Ashkenazy purchased this building for artist Greg Haberny to use as a year-round gallery space.
A group of participants plays a round of croquet during an afternoon tea party.
Some attendees embraced the natural environment and adorned themselves with the sandy sediment.
“La Piscina” by UK-based artist Marco Walker is an homage to the history of the Bombay Beach as a resort town in the ‘50s and ‘60s when it was a popular destination for the Hollywood elite.
A costumed participant observes the evening’s beach festivities from atop the ubiquitous berm.
As agricultural runoff from nearby farms created toxicity in the Salton Sea, most of the aquatic life died. Artists incorporated the reflectivity of the motionless, toxic lake into their pieces.
Constructed shark fins placed in the lake near the shore as an homage to the lake once abundant with marine life.
“Angel Queen” by Randy Polumbo allowed visitors an elevated view of the beach.
The exterior of a structure converted into a gallery for the Biennale.
In keeping with the event’s motif of juxtapositions, a grand piano was brought in for a nightly performance.
Calling the event a “biennale” while holding it annually is frequently cited by the founders as an act of subverting participants’ expectations.
British artist James Ostrer designed the Bombay Beach Opera House for his friend, ballerina Maria Kochetkova, a principal dancer with the San Francisco Ballet.
DeNike turned each room of her building into a unique gallery with different multimedia displays while incorporating found objects left behind by tenants.
A mix of Bombay Beach residents and visitors watch a performance in the Ski Inn, the town’s only bar and restaurant. The dollar bills covering the walls and ceiling have been affixed by patrons over the years.
The bar was named for the water skiing that was popular on the lake 70 years prior. Siting at 223 feet below sea level, the Ski Inn advertises itself as “the lowest bar in the western hemisphere.”
The “Bombay Beach Drive-In” installation features vintage car frames salvaged by co-founder Ashkenazy and remains as a permanent fixture in the town.
