“Desert Trade, first and foremost, is a community space. It’s seconds as an artist residency. I’ve always built community wherever I’ve lived, and this is an extension of that. It’s a place to bring community together, artists together, allowing people a space to dream and develop, and our goal is to support that.”
Heffington described the genesis of Saturday’s photography show, saying:
“I’ve been out here permanently for five years. Moving out to the middle of the desert, not knowing anyone and what that means, it’s been quite the arc of understanding what it means to live in the desert. I’ve always envisioned myself as a part of that landscape at this point and through these photographs I’m trying to merge the parallels between the landscape and my emotional somersaults that I’ve been through since living here in the desert.”
“I am in every single photograph, but you will not see my face. As a choreographer my goal was always to expose humanity through gestures and emotional content and that’s what I brought to these photographs. You’ll see the body but they are combined with these landscape photographs that I’ve taken. Once you see them, you’ll absolutely understand what that means.
Heffington described how his photography practice informs his dance practice, and vice versa.
“I’ve always kind of considered myself an amateur photographer whether it’s on an iPhone or whatever. Framing and composition are very similar to how I see whether it’s a screen or a stage. I work with negative and positive spaces.
I work with distance. I work with emotional content. So it’s very similar, actually, to how I go about filling space,
The exhibition opens on Saturday (May 24) from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., and he was quick to thank the Twentynine Palms Tourism Improvement District for their assistance.
“This wouldn’t have happened without the support of TBID. We received an incredible grant from Visit 29 Palms. The goal of these grants is to engage people from outside of the local area. What I’ve learned is that rather than people coming for a three-hour event, you want to give them something to do the night before or the day after so they can make a weekend of it. They’ll spend more money in the community, support local vendors.”
With that in mind, we’re hosting a Gospel Brunch on Sunday morning (May 25.) A friend, DJ Willie, is coming out to spin house-inspired gospel music and he’s a chef too, making his Southern-inspired cuisine.”
Heffington’s show, EMOTIONALANDSCAPES opens at 6 p.m. at DESERTRADE, located at 6750 Sherman Road in Twentynine Palms. You can learn more about the show and the brunch at desertrade.com
