"The desert" looms large in Western human consciousness as a locus of mystery, fear, and contemplation and as a classic arena for the battle for the soul.  This presentation will explore how various historic and contemporary artists have wrestled with this archetype through portrayals and treatments of one particular desert, the Mojave, during an era of colonization.  What preoccupations and power dynamics are revealed in choices of subject, object, and field?  What is the correspondence with social and economic exploitation? 

When the madonna, the whore, and the Buddha 
each claim the same territory, 
who wins?