Shades of Resilience

May 10, 2025 through September 20, 2025

Shades of Resilience

Discover Shades of Resilience, a transformative shade structure that celebrates the local Indigenous and Mexican American cultures. Part of ¡Sombra! Experiments in Shade, this installation offers heat relief education inspired by the wisdom of Indigenous ancestors and their ability to harness the utilitarian abundance of the desert. Uniting the community in a shared celebration of culture and sustainability, Shades of Resilience features words and symbols from Indigenous elders, intricate patterns inspired by native desert plants and blends new technologies with ancestral techniques to provide cooling, contemplative shade.

“Our structure is representative of the Indigenous and ancestral knowledge and innovation that has occupied this land since time immemorial to challenge the mindsets of the desert landscape from one of scarcity to one of abundance. It is here that the past and the future can be bridged.”

AZ(LAND)

Project Description

AZ(LAND) aims to create a transformative resilience-water-migration form installation that will provide shade while paying homage to Indigenous and Mexican American cultures. Divided into three components, the design seeks to provide relief from heat while celebrating heritage and the history of place. The installations will feature educational components, words and symbols gathered from boarding school survivors and patterns of native desert animal and plant relatives. The structures will be fabricated from a variety of materials including metal, paint, corn husks, adobe bricks, woven desert plant material, recycled plastic and LED solar lights. The team will work with local organizations, schools, artists, and the community to design and fabricate the artwork.