The Last Resort
September 22, 2025 at 11:27PMIn this reported essay at The Believer, Ash Sanders recounts her time in Bombay Beach, a community on the edge of the Salton Sea, during its annual Biennale, a multi-day festival during which eclectic artists converge and transform the small town into performance art. Sanders’ account is a study of water in the West, a portrait of environmental ruin, and an exploration of what it looks like to create freely in the face of devastation.
I’ll admit it: I liked Tao. But as the trip went on, I couldn’t stop thinking of how he spoke about the town. As a blank canvas. A philosophical experiment. A sort of fait accompli about commiserating with collapse. I wondered how this felt to the residents who lived here year-round, who’d had these philosophies and this party sprung on them. When the artists leave and the sun really gets going, these people don’t have the luxury of other options. They’ve lived here in the fat times and the lean, the floods and the droughts. They would live here regardless of sculptures or manifestos, whether by choice or by fate.
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2025/09/22/bombay-beach-salton-sea/
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