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Kymaerica Comes to Copper Mountain College
-By Cyndera Quackenbush
Did you know that an ancient religious cult used to inhabit what is now called Joshua Tree? Well, neither did anyone else until artist Eames Demetrio came to town. Demetrio and his conceptual art piece, entitled “Pilgrimage Trail,” have won the first place prize in the International Earth Works Art exhibit at the High Desert Nature Museum in Yucca Valley.
“We are installing plaques all over the United States to honor events that happened in Kymaerica,” stated Demetrio, about his worldwide project.
For his latest piece in Joshua Tree, Demetrio selected a cabin out in the boondocks, purchased it, and put up the plaque with the following claim: “Well-sited example of the homesteadler cabins which secluded members of the JihnWranglican sect in post-Civil War Notgeon… Under this roof, Krbling Jihn wrote his Kmmentaries in Matthew and legendary Bible translations. Note the well-preserved floor Kmpass.”
So the story goes, the religious cult of the Jihn Wranglikans rewrote the Bible without using the perceived immoral letters “c” and “o,” believed that all events of the Bible happened in the deserts of pCalifornia (the p is silent), and had a compass with no North.
Demetrio gave no specific dates as to when these people existed, however, he did answer ambiguously on the question: “It’s really hard to pin down…it’s kind of parallel to ours, or coexistent with ours.”
It doesn’t seem to matter to Demetrio whether or not viewers believe in these strange histories. The real question appears to be whether or not this imaginative conceptual art is saying something about our own society.
A woman in the audience of Demetrio’s lecture came to this realization suddenly and blurted: “I think you’re talking about the here and now! I think you’re talking about our society right now. I think this is art, and I think that art has no frontier, no boundary. I think this is imagination mixed with reality.”
In this moment of epiphany, Demetrio responded like a dart: “You can always learn something from Kymaerica.”
If you are interested in seeing Demetrio’s cabin, take Highway 62 to Sunburst, go North about a mile, then take a right on Crestview. You can also view a plaque temporarily lent to the Hi Desert Nature Museum in Yucca Valley until April 30, 2005 or you can visit www.kymaerica.com.
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Photography abstract: This is artist Eames Demetrio’s piece, “Krblin Jihn Kabin” that exists in boondocks Joshua Tree. Photo by Eames Demetrio.
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