Desert X art installation takes over the Coachella Valley
A new kind of art installation is taking over the Coachella Valley. It’s called Desert X and its various projects can be seen from the Whitewater Preserve all the way to Coachella.
Organizers have been working to bring this type of show to the desert for nearly three years.
“It’s a rich and diverse area with a lot of history and stories and what we wanted to do was bring people’s attention to it through art,” said artistic director Neville Wakefield.
The art can be found in five cities and at the Whitewater Preserve.
Jeffrey Gibson designed the “alive!” sculpture found at the Palm Springs Art Museum.
“The text itself wants to recognize the people who live here and recognize the diverse communities and also a living landscape,” Gibson said.
In Palm Desert, The Circle of Land and Sky can be found just off of Portola. It’s comprised of 300 geometric reflectors tilted at a 10-degree angle.
“My hope is that people will come out looking for artwork and will experience it as artwork and will leave with a deeper understanding of the desert itself,” Smith said.
The process of discovering the different projects is half the fun.
“It’s structured as a journey of discovery. It’s not like a traditional show where you walk through the room. You have to go to these places and a lot of the show is about the spaces in between them actually,” Wakefield said.
Some of the projects blending into their surroundings like Richard Prince’s house. Others are best seen from the sky and one actually hides — “Shybot” – is a robot programmed to avoid human contact. Shybot roams the desert recording its journey. All 16 installations on display until April 30.
