Soul Service Station was a highlight at Desert X this year (2025), an international, and free contemporary art exhibition held in the Coachella Valley, California. The biannual event features site-specific, large-scale outdoor art installations created by both established and emerging artists, addressing environmental, social, and cultural themes.

Drawing inspiration from gas stations that have populated the American West, including the Coachella Valley, Saar’s Soul Service Station offers more than practical services; it provides fuel for the soul. She invites weary travelers to get “their blues flushed, spirits inflated, hearts charged, and souls filled.”

Inside the station, a sculptural assemblage handcrafted by Saar contains a collection of devotional objects. Saar has collaborated with Coachella Valley students to create foil repoussé medallions expressing prayers and wishes for healing and hope. These community-crafted elements, combined with furnishings made from salvaged materials, form a sanctuary that merges collective dreams with Saar’s vision of a spiritual oasis. At the center stands a life-size, hand-carved female figure, the guardian and healer of the site, exuding strength and protection.

Further enriching the experience, a repurposed gas pump plays poems by Los Angeles–based poet Harryette Mullen.

Alison Saar (b. 1956) is a Los Angeles-based sculptor, mixed-media, and installation artist. Her artwork focuses on the African diaspora and Black female identity and is influenced by African, Caribbean, and Latin American folk art and spirituality.

Central to Saar’s practice is the concept of salvage, both as a material and metaphorical act. She reclaims discarded objects—tin ceiling tiles, weathered wood, glass bottles, and cast-iron pans—imbuing them with renewed vitality and purpose. This process reflects her dedication to preserving the embedded histories and cultural memories in these items, particularly those connected to Black female identity.