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Incendiary Traces

The Southern California landscape has always been in question. It has served the purpose of different narratives and provided the backdrop for numerous conflicts, both real and imagined. Artists, explorers, speculators, even military strategists have used our polyglot landscape to voice and define our relationship to place, history and memory.

Conceived by artist Hillary Mushkin, "Incendiary Traces" is a conceptually driven, community-generated art project that explores the political act of representing the Southern California landscape by creating a series of "draw-in" events in different locations across the region, from the border between U.S. and Mexico to San Clemente Island and beyond.

The project, which is developing an archive of images, uses our real and symbolic affiliations with the subtropics as a starting point to bring home connections between Southern California and political "hot spots" in the Middle East, North Africa, Latin America and beyond. The archive includes drawings, ephemera, public events, sounds, and other forms of expression that reach beyond mainstream representations of these geographies. Through engaged and embodied acts of image and sound-making, "Incendiary Traces" aims to bring us closer to seemingly remote international conflicts. We are seeking collaborators in its development.

Follow along with Incendiary Traces at their website and on Facebook.

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Hillary Mushkin.
Welcome to Incendiary Traces
Incendiary Traces led a recent draw-in at the 29 Palms Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center where participants used drawing as a tool for connecting the Southern California landscape to foreign battle zones.
The Simulators
After participating in the Incendiary Traces visit to the 29 Palms Marine Base, writer David Buuck contributes an excerpt from a novel about role players in a military training scenario.
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Harem Girls and Camel Races: Middle Eastern Fantasies in the Deserts of Southern California
The towns in the eastern side of the Coachella Valley have long utilized romanticized portrayals of the Middle East to shape views of their own desert backyard.
Tracing the U.S. / Mexico Border Wall
Artists, art historians, and students gathered to draw the most southwestern edge of the U.S./Mexico border as part of a continued investigation by Incendiary Traces.
Battlefields of Santa Barbara
How does modern war mark the California landscape? A single day's photographic record produced on the Southern California coast offers one compelling answer.
The Journey to Border Monument Number 140
David Taylor set out to photograph each of the 276 obelisks installed by the International Boundary Commission following the Mexican/American War.
A Brief History of Border Walls
Incendiary Traces lists historical and contemporary border walls to provide some global and historical context for understanding Southern California's contested US/Mexico border.
Drawing a Line: Encounters with the U.S.-Mexico Border
Susanna Newbury examines the history of the U.S./Mexico border and its geopolitical importance to the United States.
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Report on an Incendiary Traces Draw-in at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Headquarters
Incendiary Traces gathered at Northrop Grumman's Aerospace Headquarters to contemplate looking, drawing, recording, and representing landscape at the home of military "sight."
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Drawing with Satellites: Tracing Landscapes With a Mission
Incendiary Traces considers crisis mapping as another form of visualization that can help us, as ordinary citizens, understand seemingly remote wars.
Los Angeles: Camouflage and Contestation
Art historian Jason Weems examines three mid-century constructions understood as staples of the California landscape: Disneyland, Lakewood, and the aerospace industry.
Watercolor | Hillary Mushkin.
Report on San Clemente Island Draw-in
Incendiary Traces ventures out on the sport fishing boat Fury for an unannounced draw-in focused on San Clemente Island Naval Weapons Testing Range.
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