In 2009, Chris Naka found himself in the back of a truck in the desert in New Mexico,

unsure of exactly where he was going.

And it's a little bit like getting abducted.

I mean the person who picked us up was lovely, she was warm, friendly,

answered a lot of questions, but it's the only time in my life that I've like gotten

into a car with someone and I don't know where I'm going. I like tried to keep track

but it was really hard. Chris works on the show, he works with me at Alice Obscera,

but back in 2009, Chris was still in grad school studying art theory.

And he was not actually being abducted. Every other year, his MFFA studying art

and he was not actually being abducted.

Every other year, his MFA program would take this big study trip to see art somewhere out in the world.

And this year, they were headed to the American Southwest for a tour of land art

these massive outdoor art pieces. Pieces like Robert Smithson's spiral jetty

this giant 1500,500 foot spiral of rocks and earth

coiling out into the Great Salt Lake, or Nancy Holt's sun tunnels, these four huge concrete cylinders that align with the sun during

the summer and winter solstices. But on this particular day, Chris was going to

see a piece by the artist Walter D. Maria.

It's called the Lightning Field.

And there's one big thing that makes it different from all these other pieces.

The exact location of Lightning Field is like a closely guarded secret and it's inaccessible by public road

A lot of the land is actually only accessible through private roads that cut across ranches and have like you know

cattle fences so a lot of people's land is actually like in order to access it they

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