[1] 
[2] (Rachele Lozzi Gallery, Downtown) Noah Purifoy now resides in Joshua
Tree, where he has created an amazing environment of sculptures, assemblages
and collages on the desert floor. Among more than 100 works is a large shrine-like
structure some call the Cathedral; a cemetary; the Kirby Express,
a whimsical train on tracks made from building materials of shiny metal
as well as the vestiges of Kirby vacuum cleaners.
In his solitude, this 77-year-old visionary is not one to yield to the desert.
He has so many ideas and so many objects to make for the desert's delight.
The death a few years ago of his "best friend and drinking buddy"
provoked Purifoy to quit drinking and smoking cold turkey, and to work and
keep busy to "forget about it. Forgetting is also a way of redirecting
the thought process to a place where one is forced to think about that which
one is attempting to forget." An indirect result of this is a graveyard
with small shadowbox-like sculptures, the Desert Tombstones.
The selection of these currently on exhibit encourage humor and compassion
as the tonic for our fears. Each tombstone has its own story. They invoke
memory, as in The First Next Time after James Baldwin; icons of mythology,
such as Centaur; nature's gifts, as in Honeycomb; or A
Book Flown, a silver-toned book with a heavily locked clasp derived
from a poem the artist wrote 30 years ago during his sojourn in Watts.
The fifteen Desert Tombstones, the only in this series Purifoy intends
to make, evoke a quiet eloquence and timeless beauty. They are flecked with
sparks of blue and silver, like sentinels in the desert (or gallery) night.
They suggest that the mystery of life is reflected in and bound up with
the mystery of death. Purifoy's stay in the desert allows him to create
markers for you to ask more of living so that death is no stranger.
Large mixed media assemblage sculptures made from wood, detritus and found
materials are also on view.
