CRISTOPHER CICHOCKI – Desert Drone Cycle CS

cristopher cichocki is an interdisciplinary artist from the coachella valley, with an extensive body of work that examines transmorphic cycles of decay and renewal. his multi-faceted practice addresses environmental and socio-political disintegration above and beneath the surface of everyday perception.

cichocki is as accomplished in maximalist, immersive composition as he is with painting, sculpture, photography, video, installation and land art interventions. desert drone cycle returns from the southern california desert and salton sea, a region which has long been a subject of his work as well as an integral source for his materials. water recordings and windstorms are amplified and dilated into thrumming movements of ominous frequencies and hypnotic echo. cichocki girds such sounds around a somatic rhythm akin to a heartbeat and frames the notion of the ‘drone’ both as the trance-inducing, keening sound, but also as the unnamed aircraft conducting infrared surveillance.

on one level, cichocki’s sound research and experimental applications highlight the complexities around land use management when humanity encroaches upon sensitive environments. and on another, it stands as a harrowing document of isolationist composition paralleling that of thomas köner, deathprod, alan lamb, and bj nilsen.

mastered by jim haynes