What happens in the desert stays in the desert. At least in the case of American pop artist and photographer Ed Ruscha. He has a vacation home in the Mojave Desert, 15 kilometers from Landers in southern California, where Giant Rock is located. Geologically, the desert is of great interest, as the San Andreas Fault has brought an enormous number of rock layers and types to the surface. But ufologists also come here time and again to hold conventions, and the infamous Area 51 is not far away either.
What kind of stone would they like? Screenwriters D.V. DeVincentis and Anthony Peckham in the Mojave Desert. Photo: Rapid Eye Movies
Do you know him? Detective Michael Scott interviews locals in the desert. Photo: Rapid Eye Movies
Where is Rocky II? Detective Michael Scott scours the desert. Photo: Rapid Eye Movies
The father of the idea - and of the work: artist Ed Ruscha hid an artificial rock in a desert full of real ones. Photo: Rapid Eye Movies
Search picture, so to speak: Rocky II is a well-hidden fake rock in the case of the Mojave Desert, lonely in a desert world of originals. Photo: Rapid Eye Movies
Exciting and absurd scavenger hunt
Ruscha has now picked up on these psychedelic vibes, creating an artificial rock in 1976 and placing it in the desert. It is not clear why, but the idea of a fake rock in a sea of originals has the ironic feel of a fake Mona Lisa in the Louvre. “What is art?”, it seems to ask. However, the papier-mâché core of the imitation quickly disintegrated in the weather and Ruscha set about creating a waterproof stone replica. Using synthetic resin and sand, he cast a man-sized fake rock that looks very similar to a large compressed sandstone tennis ball. Strictly speaking, his second artificial stone is a quartz composite. This second specimen was finished in 1979: Rocky II, in reference to Sylvester Stallone’s boxing film, which was released in the cinema in the same year. Rocky II is said to still lie somewhere in the 35,000 square kilometer area.
All this would have been forgotten if the French filmmaker Pierre Bismuth had not come across film footage in 2005 in which Ruscha places Rocky II in the desert. Bismuth documented his research in the extremely amusing film “Where is Rocky II?”, in which he also reflects on why Ruscha went to such lengths without letting the world in on it. The artist himself remained silent, and the art world seemed to know nothing about the project. Bismuth even hired a former homicide detective as a private investigator for his thrillingly absurd scavenger hunt, whose observations repeatedly bring the aloof, elitist art world back down to earth. Bismuth also interweaves this research with a fictional plot in which he ponders whether Ruscha may have buried a dark secret under the stone and whether he may have succeeded in committing the perfect crime. The result is a wonderfully entertaining detective film about the nature of art – and an art stone that has been swallowed up by the earth.
WHERE IS ROCKY II? (OT: “Where is Rocky II?”), USA 2016, 93 minutes. Director: Pierre Bismuth; with: Ed Ruscha, Milo Ventimiglia, Robert Knepper, D.V. DeVincentis, Anthony Peckham, Mike White. Rapid Eye Movies. The film is available as video on demand, for example directly from the distributor Rapid Eye Movies: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/whereisrocky2