Category: Reviews

Note: This is a Preview article; until Saturday, January 30th, access to MARFA is restricted to members of the [Valium] group  and invited guests of Vally Lavender.

Up in the high desert lands of the Trans-Pecos (and more specifically within the the Chihuahuan Desert) sits the town of Marfa. It’s not a particularly big place – the 2010 census put its population at around 1,900-2,100 – but it is a place of romance and mystery. Founded in the early 1880’s, even the town’s name has an air of romance about it.

“Marfa” is the Russian form of “Martha”, leading to the hypothesis the town is named for a character in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. However, this is apocryphal – the town is actually named after Marfa Strogoff from Jules Verne‘s novel Michael Strogoff.

The town started as a watering point for trains travelling the Southern Pacific Railroad and for most of its life, never grew particularly large. It reached its zenith in the period between 1920 and the end of World War 2 – the former decade marking the start of a period of rapid growth that included the establishment of military training facilities through the war years.

Following the closure of those facilities in 1945, the town gradually shrank both in the number of residents and its actual size: by 2010 it was said to cover just 4.1 square kilometres. It did, however, enjoy a period of movie making popularity in the 1950s with various western films made in and around the town – most notably Giant (released in 1956), starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean – the film being the last Dean made before his death in a car accident.

In the last two decades Marfa has again become a popular location for films – notably There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men both filmed in 2006 – and for television, even featuring in an episode of The Simpsons (Mad About the Toy).  However, the town has perhaps become most famous for two things: the growing arts community within its borders, and the mysterious Marfa Lights.

And now it has a further claim to fame, being the inspiration for the latest ValiumSL region design – MARFA – instigated by Vally Lavender, who sent me an invitation to visit the region ahead of its Group opening on January 22nd, 2021.

The work of Vally, together with Fred Hamilton (frecoi), Lotus Mastroianni and Sofie Janic, MARFA captures several iconic elements of its west Texas namesake – the railway line, the surrounding desert prairie, a homage to the Presidio County Courthouse that dominates the centre of the town, the aforementioned arts community – as well as the general feel of “small town USA”.

Arts first came to Marfa in the 1971 when Minimalist artist Donald Judd relocated from New York to the town. Initially he displayed his work in two large hangers, but over the ensuing years he expanded his presence in and around the town, indoors and out. Following his death in 1994, two foundations took over the work of maintaining Judd’s legacy, with one of them – the Chinati Foundation – now occupying 30 buildings in the town and providing space for 13 artists in residence.

Chinati was also responsible in launching an open-house arts event that attracted – and still attracts – people from across the USA and around the world to visit it as a centre for contemporary arts, with more artists moving to the town in recent years to establish workshops and galleries. The town has also seen a writers-in-residence programme launched, together with a new theatre company, with pop art installations such as Prada Marfa being established within driving distances of the town.

This arts influence is fully reflected in MARFA, with reproductions of Prada Marfa (artistically relocated to the edge of the town)  and Judd’s unmistakable concrete “boxes”, while a trailer park that offers a bit of a nod towards Ready Player One sits as the venue for music and performance arts. I was a little disappointed the town’s high water tower was not presented, but this was countered by the presence of the large cut-out of James Dean, part of a display at Marfa celebrating the town’s connection with Giant.

Alongside the trailer park sits the MARFA observatory. Based on the Marfa Lights Viewing Platform, it allows visitors to the region a vantage point from which to witness the digital version of the mysterious Marfa Lights which routinely appear to the south / south-west of the town, attributed to everything from UFOs to ghosts or spirits – although science suggests they are the result of odd atmospheric reflections of vehicle lights or the light of camp fires. Legend has them dating back to at least the time of the town’s founding, although the first actual published record of the phenomenon wasn’t made until 1957 (the references to the 1880s only appeared in print in 1985).

You might just see mysterious orbs of light suddenly appear above desert foliage. These balls of light may remain stationary as they pulse on and off with intensity varying from dim to almost blinding brilliance. Then again, these ghostly lights may dart across the desert … or perform splits and mergers. Light colours are usually yellow-orange but other hues, including green, blue and red are also seen. Marfa Mystery Lights (MLs) usually fly above desert vegetation but below background mesas.

Marfa resident James Bunnell

Rich in photographic opportunities and offering several opportunities to appreciate art (including the Empty Chair Gallery), MARFA additionally offers a number of small rentals for those who fancy they’d like to experience life in the town.

SLurl Details

Open access from Saturday, January 30th at 11:00 SLT.

• MARFA (ValuimSL, rated Moderate)

 

 

As is often the way, the changing of the year sees a lot of people in the northern hemisphere turn their thoughts away from winter and towards the promise of spring. With region designers, this often means moving to replace the snowy looks they may have set out on their regions for the holiday period with something with more colour and the promise of warmth.

Of course, this doesn’t happen overnight – some regions can continue to offer snowy scenes well into February and perhaps March. However, as January does move to February and thoughts of spring bubble up even more, it can mean that those who do like walking through a snowy white blanket or celebrating falling snow or taking to ice skates or sleds and are starting to miss opportunities to do so – or who simply like to witness / photograph the scarecrow form of trees without leaves, standing with arms upraised -, MoonStone (Hecatolite) and Louise (Sallielouise) may have just the right Panacea.

Occupying a Homestead region, this is a setting that – for now – remains caught in the grip of winter, although the thaw is showing signs from gradually breaking through.

Laid out along an east-west orientation (don’t be fooled by the map tile, that is still awaiting post-Uplift update at the time of writing), this is a rugged place. The highlands sit predominantly to the west:  hills that while not high, are already showing signs of greening as the days lengthen and the air warms. The lower slopes, however, are still wreathed in snow, some of which are are under curtains of snow that is falling gently, testament to the fact that winds across the island are low.

As the land rolls down towards the eastern coast, so it is cut by water that almost splits it in two, it extends as far as the green-topped hills that form an open-ended ring around it. But is this a river that is flowing out from the hills – or an inlet of water that, having forcing its way around a little eastern island, found the line of least resistance to cut its way deep into the landscape?, as suggested by the water’s direction of flow within the semi-iced channel.

The land is also cut by a second channel reaching to the west side hills; however, it is still largely frozen, with two large tables of ice sitting against the step slopes of the hills holding it in. One of these appears thick enough to withstand a complete thaw: is is home to a wooden bench that would not be any fun to try and haul by up the precipitous slopes.

Scattered across the island are a number of buildings and structures. These include two cabins – a blocky one sitting up among the hills, and a more traditional steep-roofed one encompassing a single room, sitting on the north-east headland, close to the rocky coast  and accompanied by a small folly. A lighthouse sits on the little eastern island guarding the river mouth / inlet, and beyond it, on the south-east headland, a gazebo provides a covering for the local ice rink.

Elsewhere, cafés offer places to enjoy a warm drink, while paths and trails winding through the land and the hills, watched over by the local wildlife. Most of the latter are birds, waterfowl, turkeys, squirrels and deer – although you might want to keep a wary eye on the wolves and polar bears that reside here. None of them appear to be aggressive, but you never can tell!

A simple yet carefully detailed winter setting, with sleds available for those wanted to have a little fun whilst a box at the ice rink will provide skates, Panacea offers a photogenic visit, and is also suitable for those who have a wearable horse and would like a winter’s ride. In this it’s name might also be taken as a pointer to the region offering a chance to sooth whatever stresses you might be facing.

With thanks to Shawn Shakespeare for the tip.

SLurl Details

• Pancea (Ember Vale, rated Adult)