SUGAR DESERT, grand zone II,

is the second biggest zone of the PARK, and as the name suggests, most of it is desert. The barren land has little or no water and plants, and words and images are equally scarce. There are bans on books and electronic devices as well as restrictions on speech and imagery of any kind, which are getting stricter the farther one ventures from the borders and into the central mountain range. They become absolute in the area of the great crater, all rules being enforced with determination by an order of ascetic women called the Hostesses.

Batbara 
1999, ink, 20 x 20cm
The only known image of Batbara, head of the Order of Hostesses, to cite but one of her many titles. Batbara is probably the best known amongst all those associated with the PARK and its history.
Word that Fell from the Sky
1999, ink, 10 x 15cm

 

Monument for a Lie
1998, Ballpen and digital drawing, 30 x 40cm

P11, Monument for a Word Unspeakable
1998, 5 color offset, 50 x 70cm, 100 ex.

Concrete structure in the Sugar Crest. There is quite a number of small monuments distributed over this central mountain range, some of them hard to find. They all date back to the early days of the zone and Batbara's initial involvement with words and letters. Though most are made from stone, bricks, or concrete, there are examples where metal and wood was used. In other cases bare rock, earth and dust was the only working material. 


Groom Lake. Cross Section
2013, ink, 15 x 55cm

The Desert Queen stands in the center of a crater called Groom Lake. The crater, or basin, was created by the impact of a large meteorite that hit the ground millions of years ago. Water, which had once filled the crater, has long since evaporeted, leaving behind an enourmos salt pan.

Desert Queen. Hotel 
1998, Ink, 30 x 90cm






Double Suite. Floorplan
2013, ink, 28 x 20cm

 

 

 

 

 



The seventeen Double Suites can be reached by two spiral staircases with openings into the lower White Suites only. Internally, a set of of open stairways connects the two levels of each suite. Since large parts of the desert were disconnected from the electricity grid, there is only an old-fashioned pulley to drag food and other goods up the tower.




Desert Queen, Black and White Suites
2003, oil on MDF, 40 x 100cm

White Suite. T2. Int.
1998, offset, 50 x 70cm, 80ex

 

 

View through the open gate into the courtyard of the Desert Queen
1999, watercolor, 40 x 30cm

 

 

Babosa Gigante
2000, silkscreen, 61 x 36cm, 80 ex.

Eggs of Babosa Gigante
1998, Photo, 10 x 15cm






Giant slug, found in underground cavities in the central mountains. Their eggs are the main ingredient of Agony, a drug designed to forget.



Desert's Eye
2000, postcard, 10 x 15cm

For easier access a concrete plattform was built around this Desert Eye opening into an enormus underground cavity which was ground into the rock by the spiraling motion of the Giant Slug.

Thin Lizzy
2002, mural, color pencils and acrylic, 200 x 200cm, gallery Plonit, Tel Aviv

After decades of continuous work on the monumets, Batbara suddenly abandoned the project, leaving projects like this one in a state of incompleatness.

TELL ME A LIE
2002, ball pen, 15 x 21cm


Hall I
2003, color pencil, 70 x 100cm

 

Hall IV
2003, color pencil, 70 x 130cm