Memorial for Queer Rhyolite, a temporary monument to dreams in the dust
Memorial for Queer Rhyolite, a temporary monument to dreams in the dust.
Desert sand, displaced mine tailings, cast aluminum.
October 2019.
Memorial for Queer Rhyolite, a temporary monument to dreams in the dust
by Emily Budd
all images photographed by Emily Budd
Memorial for Queer Rhyolite, a temporary monument to dreams in the dust is a public work originally installed for the inaugural Bullfrog Biennial at the Goldwell Open Air Museum in October 2019. The piece memorializes a 1980s dream to establish “Stonewall Park,” a queer utopian effort aimed for Rhyolite, NV, a piece of deserted mining country that lies between Death Valley National Park and the Nevada Test Site. I have referenced the Stonewall Park Collection from the UNLV Lied Library Special Collections and Archives for my research.
In the 1980s, a gay couple with a small following tried to purchase the ghost town of Rhyolite, NV with the hopes to create a community where queer people could live safely, free from discrimination during the height of the AIDS epidemic. When illegal sodomy and rampant homophobia from the state kept the Nevada LGBTQ community effectively closeted, the purchase of Rhyolite would grant them ownership of a city where they could elect their own leaders, pass their own legislation and therefore become a peaceful, openly-queer community.
Leader Fred Schoonmaker and his partner Alfred Parkinson, a white man and a black man respectively, moved to Rhyolite in late 1986, which did not sit well with the locals in the nearby mining town of Beatty, NV. The couple endured relentless protest from bigots in the area, and anonymous threats that the KKK would show up at their onset. After suffering constant harassment fueled by racism, homophobia, and AIDS-related hysteria, and ultimately lacking in critical funds to complete the purchase, they abandoned their dreams for Rhyolite. Fred passed away six months later from complications due to AIDS.
Finding this to be entirely omitted from Rhyolite histories of the region, I felt compelled to appropriately memorialize their effort and shed light on their story, while also honoring the many sadnesses of their struggle. Both ephemeral and future-gazing, my piece asks, did they really fail?
“Rhyolite Historic Townsite,” Rhyolite, NV. Present day signage.
Memorial for Queer Rhyolite, a temporary monument to dreams in the dust.
Desert sand, displaced mine tailings, cast aluminum.
October 2019.
Memorial for Queer Rhyolite, a temporary monument to dreams in the dust is a column of packed desert sand and displaced mine tailings. The form at the top represents the “home” they sought. Held together only with water, it gradually crumbles over time. Inside the column is a nugget-sized cast aluminum monument which states:
here lie dreams of Stonewall Park, 1986
“a safe and peaceful place”
ded. 2019
Radically small monument, Side A
(copy of what is buried inside), cast aluminum. October 2019.
Radically small monument, Side B
“a safe and peaceful place” is a direct quote from the archive, describing their dreams in 1986.
When the column collapses, it will bury the tiny monument under its sand, becoming a future artifact, a memory of a local queer history. The remaining pile will mark the burial of this monument. At the time of this writing (April 2020), it still stands defiant against the harsh desert elements. I was delighted to discover that visitors had begun to place colorful pieces of historic glass and striped rocks found on site as offerings on and around the memorial. As its dust slowly escapes its edges and flies off in the wind, it begins to resemble the ruins of the ghost town itself.
This project existentially critiques its own monument-ness by fading and changing over time, adapting, melting into its surroundings, while still leaving a message for the future. Since its installation, it continues to teach me and inspire me, wanting to make sure it does everything it can in solidarity with much-needed change in our world and how we understand history.
“I want to create a radically small Memorial for Queer Rhyolite, a reminder of my queer ancestor’s dreams lied to rest near the ghost town that looks out over the rainbow-colored mountains. Perhaps it is made of metal, able to stand the test of time and converse with the future. Perhaps it is made of sand, and fades quickly, again lost to the desert winds of time and change.” -Emily Budd, June 2019
Memorial for Queer Rhyolite... revisited in April, 2020, shown with found offerings.
Memorial for Queer Rhyolite... April 2020, Goldwell Open Air Museum, Rhyolite, NV.
editor’s note: On June 29, 2020, The Washington Post published a story on Fred Schoonmaker and Alfred Parkinson’s flight to Rhyolite in which Emily Budd is featured.
Emily Budd (she/her) is a lesbian artist specializing in time travel through mold-making. Drawing from her background in bronze-casting and paleontology, her sculptural explorations challenge the human perception of time and speculate on our own futurity and fossilization. Reformative monuments, artifacts and memorials become an act of queer place-making while contemplating human sustainability when facing imminent change. Budd currently lives and works in Las Vegas, where she teaches Sculpture at UNLV.
IG @ladybudd