Say your life broke down. The last good kiss
you had was years ago. Richard Hugo
Buddy Bunting, Victorville, California, 2009, ink on paper.
Detail:
At Soil through Sept. 26
Bunting:
Late one night in the summer of 2005, while driving south on U.S. route
395 towards Los Angeles, I passed through the town of Victorville,
California. At the time I was unaware of the new Federal Prison there,
but approaching the town from the desert its presence was made clear by
the distinctive illumination of prison lights visible on the edge of
town.
In March 2009 I returned to Victorville for two days, with the intent
of making drawings based on the prison and surrounding landscape. The
drawing Victorville, California, 2009, is the result of that visit.
Victorville is a desert community on the southern edge of
the Mohave Desert, and the location of Victorville Federal Prison, a
high security penitentiary, which opened in October 2004.The prison
was designed to house 960 people, and currently houses about 1500*. It
was constructed on the site of a former military airbase, which was
decommissioned in 1992.Across the street from the prison, the former base housing is now
vacant, forming a ghost town that is used for urban warfare training by
troops from Fort Irwin Military Reservation. Since closing, the airport
has been designated a foreign trade zone, and redesigned to accommodate
large international carriers as a base for importing products to the
western United States.It is estimated that fully 60% of all goods moving into and out of
Southern California travel through Victorville*. Considered a public
airport, 70,000 troops a year still use the airport as the main
transport hub to and from the Army’s National Training Center at Fort
Irwin in the Mohave Desert.*
*Sources: City of Victorville official website, Federal Bureau of
Prisons official website, and Wikipedia website.
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