Wendover Report

THE CENTER’S COMPLEX in Wendover, Utah had another busy season in 2012, with several class visits in addition to a full house of official residents, and other visitors. The work of several past residents was put on display, including separate exhibits by Dan Torop, Jen Hofer, and Brian Rosa and Adam Ryder. David Jones, Patrick Kikut, and Shelby Shadwell, three artists who were in residence in 2011, who make work together and teach at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, installed their exhibit GoldMines! in Exhibit Hall 2.

New participants in the residence program in 2012 included LeRoy Stevens, Tom Jennings, Anna Neander, Max Stocklosa, Lucy Livingstone, and Kathleen Shafer.

Visitors included several past residents, working on new projects, and numerous passers-by coming to see the exhibits, most of which are open year-round (unlike the residence program, which operates seasonally from April 1 to November 20). Filmmaker Tacita Dean came through town with her film crew, working on a film about J.G. Ballard, Spiral Jetty, and the nearby Salt Works. And a film crew used some of the barracks buildings for a cable TV zombie project.

Robert Golka, the high energy experimental physicist who set up a lab inside the Enola Gay hangar around 1980, spent some time in town this year, and visited with CLUI residents. Golka and his project at Wendover were the subject of Robert Frank’s 1981 film Energy and How to Get It, which features William Burroughs, Robert Downey Sr., Rudy Wurlitzer, and Dr. John, and is a cinematic landmark of Wendover’s history of experimental research. 

The two Land Arts of the American West programs, from UNM and Texas Tech, stopped by separately for a week each in September, and did work on and about the region. The annual Wendover Work Party projects included preparing a new exhibit hall next to the orientation building. Participants in the 2012 Wendover Work Party were Matthew Coolidge, John Fitchen, Helki Franzen, Oliver Hess, John Hogan, Cooper Jacoby, William Keddell, Jed Lackritz, Hikmet Loe, Ben Loescher, John Mack, Sohrab Mohebbi, Kate Moxham, Norah Plum, Eric Potter, Paul Stout, Aurora Tang, and Wendy Wischer. Thanks to the crew for their great work! ♦