Artists say Desert X damage part of experience

The Desert X art exhibition has called the Coachella Valley its home for nearly a month. During that time, some installations have been vandalized or gone missing. However, that’s exactly what the creators expected.

The exhibition closed down Richard Prince’s “Third Place” installation in Desert Hot Springs after pieces of artwork were stolen and destroyed.

Desert X Artistic Director, Neville Wakefield said that ironically, this incident fits right in with the artist’s history. Prince’s other work, “First Place” in Los Angeles, was bulldozed and his work “Second Place,” in upstate New York, was struck by lightning.

The DHS artwork was not the only thing to be damaged recently. The small robot called Shy Bot is missing. Shy Bot was designed to avoid people, plants and rocks and has since lost its data stream.

Creators said they always expected it to go missing, just not this soon.