When I first learned about the challenge, I laughed out-loud as I thought about the uncanny opposition to Weaving the Americas; yet my curiosity grew, leaving me intrigued to travel to metropolitan cities on a planes that would have me circling the globe. This past winter I was on a journey that was contradictory to Weaving the Americas; I completed the Damien Hirst Spot Challenge by visiting all eleven Gagosian Galleries around the world in one month.

Upon my return to the United States after traveling through rural communities from Guatemala to Chile by bus, I was tired and felt mildly distant from current contemporary exhibitions. While the project brought me closer to understanding the creators of traditional art forms, Indigenous culture, and any potentiality of being interconnected to one another, I had also gained a new respect for these practices opening my mind to definitions of art and it’s shapes through culture. In the past, I have traveled solely for museums or exhibitions and never before had I taken the time to explore community through art within the original landscapes of the artist’s ancestors. As Weaving the Americas took quick turns into new woven works, exhibitions, and then a publication, it also left me feeling full, almost stuffed with information that needed a contrasting perspective; I was seeking big cities and museum exhibitions.  

The concept of traveling on a plane from one metropolitan city to another seemed, should I dare to say, simple. At first ponder the dualities were strikingly obvious and the idea was clear. Using my favorite travel sites, I quickly assembled an itinerary of flights. First the around the world ticket: New York-London-Hong Kong-San Francisco; second the national travel: Sacramento-Los Angeles-New York; and finally the Europe flights: London-Paris-Geneva-Rome-Athens-London. Total cost for airfare: $2000. It was totally possible. Next hurdle: how do I explain that I am traveling around the world for Damien Hirst after having had traveled across the Americas for Native art? This is the interesting part: the comparison.  

Beverly Hills

The Art vs. The Art of Travel

My grandma picked me up at the airport and we drove up the 405 to Wilshire, past the designer storefronts with designer clothes until arriving to the gallery. I prepped my Grandma by explaining the art of Damien Hirst and my purpose for doing the trip. We entered the gallery and a moment later we left. In this first stop I was still more intrigued by Hirst’s challenge of attending eleven exhibitions around the world than I was by the actual art. 

New York

The Artist Search vs. The Route

I spent a week in New York so that I could reconnect with friends that I had been estranged from in the past year, one of my favorites being, Kate. I arrived on one of winter’s first snowy days, but that didn’t stop Kate and I from passing through all three galleries in a day. The process was to hail a cab, enter exhibit, stamp Spot Challenge passport, take our time to properly photograph our selves in front of the works, and then hail another cab to the next location. It was simple. The Latin American artist search on the other hand was not so easy. Since there isn’t much published on contemporary Native art in Latin America, it was more like a scavenger hunt. This process went like this: travel by bus to a capital city, talk to locals, talk to waiters, talk to everyone and ask them where to find art. We would then take a bus, boat, hired car, or walk to an artist’s studio, introduce ourselves, buy art, explain project and finally, graciously ask for an interview. 

London

Buying Art vs. Being Rewarded with Art

Buying art from the participants of the Latin American project was important in showing the artists that I respected their work. Whereas this trip ends with a reward of art. The two London galleries had some of the more unique paintings, including matchbook size canvases holding a single dot and I wondered what my dots would look like. Bringing me to the question, what’s the intention of giving away art? There must be an expectation that the value of the prints and paintings will increase with yet another dot purge; the first being in 2008 with a promise to end all dot paintings, thereby increasing the demand by institutions and private collectors, inflating the value of the work. So then to continue the dots after such a declaration, there must be a kind of pendulum swinging in the opposite direction, which would be to give away the dots five years later.

Paris

Native Art Community vs. Art World

The friendliest gallery for me was in Paris. The attendant was very kind in conversing with me, even offering me a catalogue of the exhibit. Naturally, the gallery attendants are quiet, so I would try to not be too lively with them. Far different from my Latin American art search, where I had to be very friendly and talkative with artists and other community members. We would talk about family, community, land, art, and politics. Intrigued by their stories and they by ours, we shared conversations, especially about the trip as most of them wanted to travel to meet other Indigenous artists.

Geneva

Metropolitan City vs. Rural Community

I arrived to Geneva on one of the coldest days of the year and as one waiter explained to me, “the coldest day in twenty-five years!” But the cold didn’t hinder people from shopping. The city known for a history of banking with pretty much anyone who needs a bank account is indeed a rich city; and where there is money there is art. It was here that I thought about the locations of the Gagosian Galleries, each strategically in a major metropolitan city. Suddenly the globe trotting tour felt like I was connecting the dots to major bank cities. A stark difference to traveling into quaint towns sprinkled throughout Latin America, some without a bank at all. 

Rome

Bus vs. Plane

From Rome I began the most vigorous part of the journey, entailing four days of international flights, the longest being from London to Hong Kong, during which we flew over the Middle East. I watched the map on the television in front of me as we passed over a part of the world that I have never been. I wished for a clear glass plane about 500 feet from Earth, so that I could see below. The greatest part of traveling in a bus is that one is never separated from land. We traveled up and over mountain peaks, through jungles, and snowy desserts; we felt the land through vibrations and saw people in the bus and through windows. We became participants in the community by traveling with them. Flying is much different, mainly because one becomes disconnected from environment; once in the airport, the portal journey begins. One is intermixed with people from around the world preparing to move through space without any connection to land or knowing what resides below.

Athens

Weaving vs. The Spot

For the most part, the artists who I met on my journey through the Americas were making art because it was a learned family tradition. And what about the spot? Athens was my final European city, and by this time I was seeing spots everywhere. They were on fashion accessories, my grandma’s coffee mugs, and people’s clothing; I then started to think about the dots more as art and less as a gimmick. The dot is one of the most used shapes in marketing and decoration; so then wouldn’t the dot as a painting and commodity be a contemporary art form? Maybe Hirst isn’t continuing an ancestral tradition, but one cannot argue that he didn’t learn it from his family. After all, Hirst claims that his father painted the front door of their house with dots.  

Hong Kong

The Underlining Text vs. The Text

The agreement between the Gagosian Gallery, Damien Hirst and all Spot Challenge Participants was that upon completion of the challenge, the challenger would then author a personalized note on their print. I finished on Valentine’s Day and a heart necklace hung around my neck with text etched around the heart’s circumference, “Love is all around you.” I thought about the year of traveling through eighteen countries, meeting artists, seeing dots and having travel companionship; I then thought about this trip around the world and how I saw friends in nearly every city visited. I imagined the dots hanging with my Indigenous art collection and a note from Damien saying, “Sarah, love is all around you,” and it seemed to sum up my year of traveling for art quite perfectly.