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Home My WebLink About2025-05-14 CAC Regular Meeting Agenda Packet CULTURAL ARTS COMMITTEE CITY OF PALM DESERT MEETING AGENDA Wednesday, May 14, 2025 9:00 a.m. Administrative Conference Room, City Hall 73-510 Fred Waring Drive Palm Desert, CA 92260 Pursuant to Assembly Bill 2449, this meeting will be conducted as a hybrid meeting and there will be in-person access to this location. To participate via Zoom, use the following link: https://palmdesert.zoom.us/j/83338542730 or call (213) 338-8477, Zoom Meeting ID: 833 3854 2730 • Written public comment may also be submitted to cityclerk@palmdesert.gov. E-mails received by 5:00 p.m. one day prior to the meeting will be distributed to the Committee. Any correspondence received during or after the meeting will be distributed to the Committee as soon as practicable and retained for the official record. Emails will not be read aloud except as an ADA accommodation. • Pages 1.CALL TO ORDER 2.ROLL CALL 3.NON-AGENDA PUBLIC COMMENTS This time has been set aside for the public to address the Cultural Arts Committee on issues that are not on the agenda for up to three minutes. Because the Brown Act does not allow the Committee to act on items not listed on the agenda, members may briefly respond or refer the matter to staff for a report and recommendation at a future meeting. 4.CONSENT CALENDAR All matters listed on the Consent Calendar are considered routine and may be approved by one motion. The public may comment on any items on the Consent Agenda within the three-minute time limit. Individual items may be removed by the Committee for a separate discussion. RECOMMENDATION: To approve the consent calendar as presented. 4.a APPROVAL OF MINUTES 5 RECOMMENDATION: Approve the Minutes of April 9, 2025. 4.b INFORMATIONAL REPORT ON DUELING PALMS BY KYLE ABSOLOM 9 RECOMMENDATION: Receive and file informational report on Dueling Palms by Kyle Absolom. 5.CONSENT ITEMS HELD OVER Items removed from the Consent Calendar for separate discussion are considered at this time. 6.BUSINESS ITEMS Items listed in this section are presented for the Committee's review and action. Public comment is allowed on each item, with a three-minute time limit per speaker. The committee may provide direction, request additional information, or take action as appropriate. 6.a RECOMMEND APPROVAL TO RELEASE A REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS FOR SAN PABLO PHASE 2 ROUNDABOUT SCULPTURE 43 RECOMMENDATION: Recommend City Council approval to release a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for a sculpture to be installed in the San Pablo Phase 2 Roundabout. 6.b CONSIDERATION OF PURCHASE OF A SCULPTURE FROM THE 2025 DESERT X EXHIBITION 55 RECOMMENDATION: Discuss purchase of The Act of Being Together by José Dávila from the 2025 Desert X Exhibition. 6.c REVISE PRIORITY ONE OF THE CULTURAL ARTS COMMITTEE’S FISCAL YEAR 2025-2026 WORK PLAN 113 RECOMMENDATION: Revise priority one of the Cultural Arts Committee’s previously developed Fiscal Year 2025-2026 Work Plan and forward to the City Council for approval. Cultural Arts Committee Meeting May 14, 2025 2 6.d REQUEST FOR DIRECTION TO RELOCATE OR DEACCESSION OF LILY PAD BENCH BY MICHAEL TODD 123 RECOMMENDATION: Provide direction to staff on the relocation or deaccession of Lily Pad Bench by Michael Todd. 7.INFORMATIONAL REPORTS The liaisons and City staff may provide updates on projects, activities, or other matters within the committee's scope. These are informational items with no formal action. 7.a CITY STAFF City staff will provide updates on relevant projects, activities, and other matters within the committee's scope. These are informational items with no formal action. 7.a.1 CITY CLERK PRESENTATION 133 7.b PLANNING COMMISSION LIAISON 7.c ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW COMMISSION LIAISON 7.d CITY COUNCIL LIAISON The liaison provides updates to facilitate communication between the City Council and the Committee. This is an informational update with no formal action. 7.e ATTENDANCE REPORT 155 8.REQUESTS FOR ACTION Committee members may propose future agenda items within the committee's scope. Items that receive support from at least one other member may be placed on a future agenda for discussion and possible action. No formal action will be taken at this time. 9.ADJOURNMENT The next Regular Meeting will be held on June 11, 2025, at 9:00 a.m. Cultural Arts Committee Meeting May 14, 2025 3 10.PUBLIC NOTICES Agenda Related Materials: Pursuant to Government Code §54957.5(b)(2) the designated office for inspection of records in connection with this meeting is the Office of the City Clerk, Palm Desert Civic Center, 73-510 Fred Waring Drive, Palm Desert. Staff reports for all agenda items considered in open session, and documents provided to a majority of the legislative bodies are available for public inspection at City Hall and on the City’s website at www.palmdesert.gov. Americans with Disabilities Act: It is the intention of the City of Palm Desert to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in all respects. If, as an attendee or a participant at this meeting, or in meetings on a regular basis, you will need special assistance beyond what is normally provided, the City will attempt to accommodate you in every reasonable manner. Please contact the Office of the City Clerk, (760) 346-0611, at least 48 hours prior to the meeting to inform us of your needs and to determine if accommodation is feasible. AFFIDAVIT OF POSTING I hereby certify under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of California that the foregoing agenda for the Cultural Arts Committee was posted on the City Hall bulletin board and City website not less than 72 hours prior to the meeting. /s/ Monique M. Lomeli, CMC Senior Deputy Clerk Cultural Arts Committee Meeting May 14, 2025 4 CULTURAL ARTS COMMITTEE CITY OF PALM DESERT REGULAR MEETING MINUTES 1. CALL TO ORDER A Regular Meeting of the Cultural Arts Committee was called to order by Chair Hauer on Wednesday, April 9, 2025, at 9:00 a.m. in the Administrative Conference Room, City Hall, located at 73-510 Fred Waring Drive, Palm Desert, California. 2. ROLL CALL 3. NONAGENDA PUBLIC COMMENTS None. 4. CONSENT CALENDAR Motion by: Committee Member Mitze Seconded by: Committee Member Rose To approve the consent calendar as presented. Motion Carried (6 to 0) 4.a APPROVAL OF MINUTES Motion by: Committee Member Mitze Seconded by: Committee Member Rose Approve the Minutes of March 12, 2025. Motion Carried (6 to 0) 5 Cultural Arts Committee Regular Meeting Minutes April 9, 2025 2 4.b PROJECT STATUS REPORT FOR APRIL 2025 Motion by: Committee Member Mitze Seconded by: Committee Member Rose Receive and file project status report for April 2025. Motion Carried (6 to 0) 4.c INFORMATIONAL REPORT ON FY 2025/2026 PUBLIC ART BUDGET AND PROJECTS Motion by: Committee Member Mitze Seconded by: Committee Member Rose Receive and file informational report on FY 2025/2026 Public Art budget and projects. Motion Carried (6 to 0) 5. CONSENT ITEMS HELD OVER None. 6. BUSINESS ITEMS 6.a DEVELOPMENT OF CULTURAL ARTS COMMITTEE FY 2025-2026 WORK PLAN Management Analyst Powell narrated a PowerPoint presentation and responded to Committee Member inquiries. Motion by: Committee Member Boren Seconded by: Committee Member Simley Approve the Cultural Arts Committee’s FY 2025-2026 work plan as presented. Motion Carried (6 to 0) 7. INFORMATIONAL REPORTS 7.a PLANNING COMMISSION LIAISON None. 7.b ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW COMMISSION LIAISON Liaison Colvard provided a summary of recent Architectural Review Comm ission actions and provided information concerning the development of new monument signs and wayfinding signage. 6 Cultural Arts Committee Regular Meeting Minutes April 9, 2025 3 7.c CITY COUNCIL LIAISON City Council Liaison Nestande provided information regarding an upcoming City Council consent item regarding El Paseo sculpture maintenance services. 7.d CITY STAFF Recording Secretary Lomeli provided an update on the possibility of transitioning from paper agenda packets to iPads and reminded the Committee that the deadline to apply for reappointment is April 30, 2025. 8. REQUESTS FOR ACTION Vice Chair Adney, with majority support, requested a discussion item regarding the potential to purchase Desert X piece The Act of Being Together by Jose Davila. Chair Hauer, with support from Committee Member Boren, requested that the agenda template be revised to include the option for Committee Member comments. 9. ATTENDANCE REPORT Report provided; no action taken on this item. 10. ADJOURNMENT The Cultural Arts Committee adjourned at 10:06 a.m. 11. PUBLIC NOTICES _______________________________ Monique Lomeli, Senior Deputy Clerk Recording Secretary _____________________________ Erica Powell, Management Analyst Secretary _________________________ DATE APPROVED BY CULTURAL ARTS COMMITTEE 7 8 Page 1 of 2 CULTURAL ARTS COMMITTEE CITY OF PALM DESERT STAFF REPORT MEETING DATE: May 14, 2024 PREPARED BY: Erica Powell, Management Analyst SUBJECT: INFORMATIONAL REPORT ON DUELING PALMS BY KYLE ABSOLOM RECOMMENDATION: Receive and file informational report on Dueling Palms by Kyle Absolom. BACKGROUND/ANALYSIS: In 2020, the Cultural Arts Committee (CAC) selected two finalists for sculptures along San Pablo Avenue. Sunburst by Donald Gialanella was installed in 2023 at the roundabout on San Pablo Avenue and San Gorgonio Avenue. The second artwork, Dueling Palms by Kyle Absolom, was planned for Phase 2 at the east entrance to College of the Desert. The artist contract for Dueling Palms was approved in 2024 for $169,500. In early 2025, the artist notified staff that he had significantly underestimated material costs and is now requesting an additional $95,572.50 —a 56% increase. This would raise the total project cost to over $265,000, not including installation expenses. At its regular meeting on March 12, 2025, the CAC recommended that the City Council approve the requested budget increase for Dueling Palms. However, as staff prepared documentation for the City Council’s consideration, concerns were identified during an internal review of the executed agreement. These concerns include:  Budget Responsibility: The contract explicitly places responsibility for material cost fluctuations on the artist. The artist’s current request represents a 56% increase beyond the already amended contract, and deviates from the cost management expectations outlined in the agreement.  Project Oversight: Staff has concerns regarding the artist’s capacity to effectively manage the remaining phases of the project. This includes completing the work within the approved budget and adhering to the agreed-upon scope and schedule. Due to budget concerns, contract limitations, and intellectual property risks, the matter has been reviewed by the City’s attorney. Based on that review, staff will be recommending to the City Council to terminate the current Dueling Palms project and issue a new Call for Entries for a different sculpture in this location. This report is provided for the Committee’s information. No action is required at this time. While the Committee is not being asked to take action at this time, staff greatly values the Committee’s 9 Cultural Arts Committee City of Palm Desert (Informational Report on Dueling Palms by Kyle Absolom) Page 2 of 2 past input and selection process. The City will continue t o rely on the Committee’s expertise in reviewing future proposals for this important site. FINANCIAL IMPACT: To date, the artist has received $16,950 for the Final Design Phase, which is non -refundable if the project is terminated. Funding is available in the Public Art budget and no General Fund monies would be expended. ATTACHMENT: Contract No. C48070A 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 Page 1 of 1 CULTURAL ARTS COMMITTEE CITY OF PALM DESERT STAFF REPORT MEETING DATE: May 14, 2025 PREPARED BY: Erica Powell, Management Analyst SUBJECT: RECOMMEND APPROVAL TO RELEASE A REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS FOR SAN PABLO PHASE 2 ROUNDABOUT SCULPTURE RECOMMENDATION: Recommend City Council approval to release a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for a sculpture to be installed in the San Pablo Phase 2 Roundabout. BACKGROUND/ANALYSIS: At its meeting on April 9, 2025, the Cultural Arts Committee (CAC) approved the Fiscal Year 2025/2026 Public Art Budget, which included allocation of public art funds toward Capital Improvement Projects. As part of this allocation, funds were designated for the Dueling Palms sculpture previously slotted for installation in the roundabout located at the intersection of San Pablo Avenue and the east entrance to College of the Desert. Given that the Dueling Palms project is in the process of termination, staff recommends immediate issuance of a new RFQ for the location. Staff is requesting input from the CAC regarding criteria to be included in the RFQ for the sculpture. Staff will also collaborate with Public Works to incorporate appropriate technical specifications into the RFQ to ensure compliance with underground utility locations, depths, and other infrastructure considerations. Following CAC’s input, staff will finalize the RFQ and present it to the City Council for approval, with an anticipated installation timeline to follow. FINANCIAL IMPACT: The FY 2025/2026 Public Art Fund includes $300,000 allocated for the San Pablo Phase 2 Sculpture project. Staff recommends dedicating $200,000 for the commissioning of the sculpture, with the remaining $100,000 reserved for installation costs, including lighting, electrical work, traffic control, crane service, signage, and landscaping. ATTACHMENT: 1. Draft RFQ 43 44 CITY OF PALM DESERT REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS PUBLIC ART PROJECT FOR ROUNDABOUT AT SAN PABLO AVENUE AND EAST ENTRANCE OF COLLEGE OF THE DESERT Artist Eligibility The City of Palm Desert, California, and the Palm Desert Cultural Arts Committee invites experienced artists residing in the U.S., Canada, or Mexico to apply for a major public art commission. Applicants must be 18 years of age or older. About Palm Desert Located just over 100 miles east of Los Angeles, Palm Desert is a premier resort destination and thriving year-round community at the heart of California’s Coachella Valley—a region made up of nine distinct cities. To the west lies Palm Springs, celebrated for its midcentury modern architecture and storied Hollywood history. To the east is Indio, known for its agricultural roots and vibrant murals featuring contemporary Latinx art. Palm Desert sits at the center of the Valley, offering a blend of these influences with its own distinctive, upscale character. Surrounded by dramatic mountain ranges and wide-open desert, the city is a dynamic hub of nature, education, and culture. It is home to the Coachella Valley’s three institutions of higher learning, the renowned McCallum Theatre—the region’s largest indoor performing arts venue—and El Paseo, a premier shopping and dining district known as the “Rodeo Drive of the Desert.” El Paseo also features a rotating outdoor exhibition of public art, showcasing 18 sculptures by artists, a tradition that has been ongoing since 1992. A New Vision for San Pablo Avenue San Pablo Avenue reflects Palm Desert’s ongoing transformation into a more connected, vibrant, and livable city. Reimagined in 2020, this mile-long corridor—running north from El Paseo and Highway 111—links key destinations including College of the Desert, City Hall, and Civic Center Park with nearby residential neighborhoods and commercial districts. The revitalized avenue now features pedestrian-friendly landscaping, dedicated bike lanes, outdoor dining patios, pocket parks with interactive elements, and community gardens. With a more walkable, human-scaled design than El Paseo and strong potential for mixed-use development, San Pablo Avenue is emerging as the heart of Palm Desert’s civic and cultural life. About the Project The Committee invites artists to create a signature sculptural installation for the northern roundabout on San Pablo Avenue—a key gateway that marks the transition between Palm Desert’s civic and cultural core and its surrounding residential and commercial neighborhoods. Serving as a visual anchor at the north end of the revitalized corridor, the sculpture(s) will contribute to San Pablo’s identity as a dynamic, pedestrian-friendly city center. Artists may propose a single large-scale piece or a series of coordinated sculptures. 45 Works that incorporate lighting are encouraged to enhance nighttime visibility and impact. Water features will not be considered. Artwork Design, Safety, and Durability Requirements − Height requirements for singular sculptures may not exceed 25’ centered in the roundabout. − Site can handle multiple sculptures; however, height requirements for multiple sculptures may not exceed 15’ due to breakaway zone. − The unpaved portion of the roundabout is 40’ diameter with a 35’ diameter workable space as outlined in Exhibit “A”. − The roundabout is graded flat, with a top-of-curb elevation variation of less than 0.1 feet in all directions—north, south, east, and west—as shown in Exhibit “A.” − Foundations cannot be installed in some areas of the roundabout due to underground utilities. Areas not accessible are outlined in Exhibit “B”. − The artwork must not create a disorienting situation or cause a distraction for drivers. (i.e. highly reflective material discouraged). − The artwork must improve and not detract from the safety of the site. − The artwork must allow for visibility to oncoming traffic and pedestrians. − The artwork should be designed “in the round” and be equally intriguing from all angles. − The artwork should be scaled to the attention of approaching drivers but should not be so detailed that it requires up-close or extended inspection for appreciation. − Interactive artwork is discouraged, and sculptures must not create a desire for pedestrian activity (i.e. selfies). The roundabout is not intended to be a gathering spot, which would cause pedestrians to cross traffic. − The artwork must be fabricated in durable, permanent, outdoor media that is safe, easily maintained, and proven its viability in public installations. − The artwork must be able to withstand harsh weather conditions of the desert, which include intense sun, summer temperatures above 110* Fahrenheit, and high winds. The City of Palm Desert performs regular maintenance on public art, but prospective applicants are advised to research colors and materials for durability. − The artwork must be constructed to reasonably discourage or deter theft and vandalism. − The artwork must be suitable for public viewing by all ages. − The connections (e.g., bolts) between the sculpture and foundation must be breakaway in case of errant vehicles. Photos of the roundabout are outlined in Exhibit “C”. Additional construction plans are available upon request. Requirements Interested artists or artist teams must apply via the Call listed on www.callforentry.org. The following information is required: − Contact information for a client who can verify the satisfactory completion of at least one public art project. − Contact information for two professional references (separate from the client above). − Five images of relevant work. 46 − Artist statement, not exceeding one page, addressing the conceptual approach to the project. − Current resume, not to exceed two pages for each artist. − Conceptual design drawings including information about the actual dimensions of the artwork and placement in the roundabout. − Detailed project budget estimate. − Timeframe in which the artist would be able to complete the work from award of contract to installation. − Description of materials to be used and their durability. − If the sculpture contains lighting, provide wattage, lumens, and color of lighting. − Explanation of foundation design and the ability to get a California registered Professional Engineer to sign off on the design. − Explanation of maintenance requirements. Applicants must also submit the following: − Ten digital images in high resolution JPEG format of relevant, recently completed artwork. − Image list identifying images by number, including title, media, completion date, dimensions (HxWxD), and a brief description of the work. Project Budget The budget for this project is $200,000. The selected artist or artist team will be responsible for the design, fabrication, transportation, and oversight of the installation. The available budget must cover all artists’ expenses including artist fees, taxes, insurance, materials, tools, travel, expense contingency, and other associated costs. Installation, uplighting costs, and permit fees will be covered by the City. Calculation of the budget will take into consideration the possible inflation of service and material costs between the date of execution of this Agreement and the anticipated completion date. Selection Process The Cultural Arts Committee will select up to three finalists for the project. All finalists will be required to develop additional presentation materials and a maquette no higher than two feet. Oral presentations will be scheduled in person or via Zoom video call. The City will reimburse artists for the costs associated with creation of the maquette, up to $500. Receipts must be provided for reimbursement. The selection criteria are as follows: − Proposed artwork exhibits artistic merit, quality, and innovative design. − Proposed artwork is appropriate to site size and materials. − Proposed artwork meets all requirements of this Request for Qualifications. − Safety of proposed artwork is approved by the City’s Public Works Department. The Cultural Arts Committee will make a recommendation to the Palm Desert City Council. The City Council will make the final selection of the artwork. The selected artist(s) must execute the City’s Agreement (draft copy available upon request). 47 Application Deadline Applications must be received via www.callforentry.org by Thursday, September 4, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. (Mountain Zone Time). Submittal Timeline (subject to change at the City’s discretion) −Application deadline: September 4, 2025 −Three finalists notified: Week of October 13, 2025 −Oral presentation by finalists to the Cultural Arts Committee (CAC): Week of November 12, 2025 −CAC recommendation to the Palm Desert City Council: December 11, 2025 −Finalist notified: Week of December 15, 2025 −Execution of City Agreement: Jan/Feb 2026 −Deadline for installation: It is desirable that the artwork be completed and installed by Jan/Feb 2027. Additional Information For additional information on this project, please contact Erica Powell at 760-776-6346, or via email at epowell@palmdesert.gov Disclaimer: The City of Palm Desert reserves the right, at any time, to modify this Request for Qualifications, to modify the City’s Agreement, to reject any or all proposals, and to re-open the competition. The final artwork becomes the property of the City, and the City receives all rights to reproduce the artwork. 48 CoSD TITLE ALL "NOTES" TITLES 95 % S U B M I T T A L - N O T F O R C O N S T R U C T I O N SCALE 1"=20' N NTS A MODIFIED PCC ROLLED CURB DETAIL NTS A SCALE : 1"=20' ROUNDABOUT DETAILS SECTION A-A WATE R TRUCK APRON WATE R WATE R NTS DETAIL 'A' Exhibit A 49 Exhibit B 50 San Pablo Phase II Roundabout Location: San Pablo and entrances to College of the Desert/YMCA Exhibit C 51 52 53 54 Page 1 of 2 CULTURAL ARTS COMMITTEE CITY OF PALM DESERT STAFF REPORT MEETING DATE: May 14, 2025 PREPARED BY: Erica Powell, Management Analyst SUBJECT: CONSIDERATION OF PURCHASE OF A SCULPTURE FROM THE 2025 DESERT X EXHIBITION RECOMMENDATION: Discuss purchase of The Act of Being Together by José Dávila from the 2025 Desert X Exhibition. BACKGROUND/ANALYSIS: At its meeting on April 9, 2025, the Cultural Arts Committee (CAC) expressed interest in exploring the potential acquisition of a sculpture from the current Desert X Exhibition, with specific reference to The Act of Being Together by artist José Dávila. Following the Committee’s direction, staff conducted a site visit and met with Desert X representatives to evaluate the feasibility of acquiring and permanently installing the work in Palm Desert. The sculpture is composed of 12 massive Bianco Neve marble blocks and presents significant logistical and financial considerations. Sculpture Details:  Title: The Act of Being Together  Artist: José Dávila  Medium: Bianco Neve marble  Quantity: 12 individual blocks  Overall Dimensions: 171” H x 566.5” W x 547.625” D  Total Weight: 329,218 lbs (approximately 164.3 tons)  Purchase Price: $850,000 (Note: Shipping, tax, and installation not included in purchase price.) Installation Cost Estimate:  Crane Services: 4 days at $10,000/day = $40,000  Heavy-Duty Transport: 9 platform truckloads at $10,000 each = $90,000  Estimated Total Installation Cost: $130,000–$180,000 Staff did not evaluate potential installation locations due to the substantial logistical and financial challenges associated with the sculpture. Any future consideration of this piece would require a highly accessible site capable of accommodating multiple heavy-duty transport vehicles and 55 Cultural Arts Committee City of Palm Desert (Consideration of Purchase of a Sculpture from the 2025 Desert X Exhibition ) Page 2 of 2 large-scale crane equipment. Given the extreme weight and scale of the marble blocks, such a site would also require significant structural assessment and preparation to ensure safety and long-term stability, which would add additional costs to the overall project. Based on a review of current and projected public art expenditures, staff does not recommend the purchase The Act of Being Together by José Dávila from the 2025 Desert X Exhibition as it does not align with the City’s long-term public art funding priorities. FINANCIAL IMPACT: The acquisition and installation of The Act of Being Together would significantly exceed the funding capacity of the FY 2025/2026 Public Art Budget and would require the reprioritization or cancellation of multiple planned projects. Given current and projected expenditures, such a purchase is not financially viable within the scope of the City's long-range public art planning. ATTACHMENTS: 1. The Act of Being Together Proposal 2. Public Art Financials: Percentage of Expenditures, 40% Expenditures Projections, and Projected Expenditures and Revenues 56 THE ACT OF BEING TOGETHER, COACHELLA VALLEY, US.JOSE DÁVILA 57 Installation view: The act of being together, Desert X, Coachella Valley, US. 58 Material density, gravity, and time are central to most of Jose Dávila’s practice. Known for sculptures that explore different balances created by opposing forces, Dávila has created a work for Desert X 2025 that spans both space and time. The marble blocks used in this piece are unaltered extractions from a quarry a few hundred miles across the U.S.–Mexico border. Drawing on Robert Smithson’s concept of site/nonsite dialectics, Dávila connects the two locations by highlighting the presence and absence of the rough-hewn forms. By taking the material from one place and adding it in another, he establishes a relationship between the void of its origin and the striking presence it creates in a foreign landscape. This notion of site and nonsite also plays with the idea of visibility itself. To reach their new home in the Coachella Valley, the stone blocks had to cross the border. In this migration, they also traversed a metaphorical border between the seen and the unseen. Appearing as if from nowhere, Dávila’s casually stacked marble blocks appear splintered across both time as well as space. Moved by the invisible forces of unknown histories, they evoke the archeological relics of ancient civilizations and the potential future of life beyond our own. Wandering through the site invites speculation about our place within the vast frameworks that shape space and time. Like ruins in reverse, Dávila’s marble formations suggest a suspended state of becoming, representing the end of something old and the beginning of something new. Standing amidst them prompts reflection on our transient position within an infinite expanse. Generous support is provided by 59 60 61 62 Since the beginning of my practice, I have been drawn to the fundamental act of positioning—placing objects in space, testing the limits of gravity and balance. At its core, sculpture is about positioning, about the negotiation between mass and void, tension and release. The simple yet profound act of moving a stone, relocating it within space, and placing it with intention is one of the most ancient and enduring human gestures, long before sculpture was defined as an art form. Megalithic structures—places like Castlerigg, Stonehenge, and Carnac—resonate deeply with me. We do not know with certainty why they were created or what they were used for, but it is precisely their enigmatic nature that makes their powerful presence undeniable. These stones were not merely objects; they were alignments with the cosmos, with the landscape, and with cycles of time that transcend the human scale. Most importantly, they were systems of human connection—collective acts of presence that required vision, effort, and a shared understanding of place. In the desert of the Coachella Valley—a landscape that is itself a record of geological forces, displacement, and tectonic movement—my work for Desert X 2025 is an extension of this primal impulse: an exploration of how the simple yet complex act of moving heavy stones can create spaces for contemplation, functioning as open devices whose meaning is continuously reconfigured in the imagination of those who observe them. In its apparent simplicity, this gesture seeks to reveal that sculpture is not merely a practice of form, but a form of thought. The English anthropologist Margaret Mead is said to have identified a healed femur as the first sign of civilization. Someone with a broken femur would not typically survive long, being unable to hunt, escape predators, or gather food. A mended bone meant that someone had cared—had stopped to help, to feed, to protect. That healed femur stands as a marker: civilization begins not with tools, pottery, or writing, but with an act of support. This idea resonates deeply when we consider the earliest megalithic structures. They were not shelters or immediate necessities for survival, but ambitious collective efforts that required time, labor, and intention. Their existence signals that humans THE ACT OF BEING TOGETHER DESERT X, COACHELLA VALLEY, US. 63 had already moved beyond mere subsistence—they had the need and capacity to make something meaningful together. Whether serving as ritual spaces aligned with celestial cycles or sites of communal gathering, these stones are vestiges of a civilization that valued memory, connection, and shared imagination. Like the healed femur, megaliths are evidence that early humans did not simply endure the world—they sought to leave a mark, to engage in acts of creation that transcended the immediate. If the mended bone is proof of mutual care, these monumental stones are proof of shared ideas at a collective scale. Both remind us that civilization begins wherever people choose to support one another, to build together, and to leave traces of their existence in the world. This notion is central to how I understand sculpture and collaboration. This is why I titled this work The Act of Being Together—a reference to this very principle. The piece embodies the idea that the meaning of form lies not only in its material presence, but in the relationships it generates—in the ways its elements rely on one another to hold, to balance, to remain in place. Much like the megaliths, or the healed femur, the sculpture stands as a marker of collective presence. It speaks to the same human impulse: the desire to exist together, to care, to create, and to inscribe meaning into the world beyond the self. Above all, what matters most to me in this work is to appeal to a sense of primal wonder—a type of awe that is universal, deeply human, and shared across time and cultures. That feeling of standing before something ancient, vast, and elemental— of sensing that matter and meaning have been brought together through a simple yet deliberate gesture. I believe that sculpture, in its purest form, has the potential to awaken that original astonishment. It reminds us not only of where we come from, but also of our shared longing for connection. Jose Davila, 2025 64 65 66 67 68 69 Installation view: The act of being together, Desert X, Coachella Valley, US. 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 PROCESS 79 SKETCH 80 SKETCH 81 SKETCH 82 SKETCH 83 SKETCH 84 SCALE MODEL 85 SCALE MODEL 86 SCALE MODEL 87 QUARRY VISIT: CHIHUAHUA, MX 88 QUARRY VISIT: CHIHUAHUA, MX 89 QUARRY VISIT: CHIHUAHUA, MX 90 INSTALLATION: COACHELLA VALLEY, US 91 INSTALLATION: COACHELLA VALLEY, US 92 INSTALLATION: COACHELLA VALLEY, US 93 INSTALLATION: COACHELLA VALLEY, US 94 INSTALLATION: COACHELLA VALLEY, US 95 INSTALLATION: COACHELLA VALLEY, US 96 GENERAL DIMENSIONS 1391 cm 434.5 cm 1439 cm 434.5H x 1439L x 1391W cm 97 GENERAL DIMENSIONS FLOOR PLAN 1439 cm 1391 cm A B C D E F 98 GENERAL DIMENSIONS FLOOR PLAN (BASE VOLUMES) 374 cm 7 6 c m 2 5 3 c m 105 cm 235 cm 1 5 0 c m 336 cm 1 4 3 c m 3 8 8 c m 147 cm 99 BLOCKS DIMENSIONS Marble set B Quantity: 2 Bianco Neve marble blocks Base block 1B: 140H x 250L x 230W cm, 19,760.00 kg Top block 2B: 181H x 108L x 123W cm, 5,113.85 kg Marble set C Quantity: 2 Bianco Neve marble blocks Base block 1C: 196H x 255L x 249W cm, 21,294.00 kg Top block 2C: 192H x 212L x 211W cm, 14,227.20 kg Marble set A Quantity: 2 Bianco Neve marble blocks Base block 1A: 134H x 233L x 222W cm, 12,670.15 kg Top block 2A: 170H x 300L x 155W cm, 9,814.16 kg Marble set D Quantity: 2 Bianco Neve marble blocks Base block 1D: 118H x 199L x 181W cm, 6,716.43 kg Top block 2D: 168H x 235L x 212W cm, 11,891.77 kg Marble set F Quantity: 2 Bianco Neve marble blocks Base block 1F: 155H x 308L x 187W cm, 13,436.85 kg Top block 2F: 290H x 202L x 166W cm, 11,930.15 kg Marble set E Quantity: 2 Bianco Neve marble blocks Base block 1E: 115H x 232L x 187W cm, 9,633.84 kg Top block 2E: 225H x 198L x 150W cm, 12,844.00 kg 2D 2C 2E 2F 2B 1B 2A 1A 1F 1E 1C 1D 100 WEIGHT AND DIMENSIONS PER BLOCK 101 The installation of the sculpture requires careful planning, taking into account both technical and logistical aspects to ensure the process is carried out safely and efficiently. Dismantling the artwork typically takes around two full workdays, with eight-hour shifts. For this task, a crane with a 50-ton capacity is recommended, such as the Liebherr LTM 1040-2.1 model. The rental cost for this type of crane is approximately $10,000 USD per day. Technical specifications can be found at the following link: Liebherr LTM 1040-2.1. Once dismantled, the sculpture should be transported using heavy-duty platform trucks. In the installation of this project, nine trips (nine trucks) were required to move twelve blocks, taking into account the legal weight limits for crossing the Mexico–United States border, where the maximum load allowed per truck is 22 ton. For this purpose, lowboy trailers with a load capacity of over 30 ton are recommended, as they are well-suited for hauling large and heavy components. The cost per trip may vary depending on the final destination, but in this project, it was estimated at approximately $22,000 USD per trip. For the final installation at the new site, it is advisable to use the same type of crane again, for approximately two days of work with eight-hour shifts. It’s important to note that installation times and conditions may vary depending on the specific location, available access points, and any permits that need to be obtained. A thorough site assessment is strongly recommended to anticipate any additional logistical or technical requirements. INSTALLATION & GENERAL TRANSPORTATION GUIDELINES 102 SELECTED PRESS 103 Subscribe for unlimited access Site Map Follow Us eNewspaper Coupons Find/Post Jobs Place an Ad Media Kit: Why the L. A. Times? Copyright © 2025, Los Angeles Times | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | CA Notice of Collection | Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information Christopher Knight Entertainment & Arts A modern Stonehenge rises in Desert Hot Springs: Here are the standouts in Desert X 2025 Jose Dávila, “The act of being together,” 2025, marble (Christopher Knight / Los Angeles Times) By Christopher Knight Art Critic March 17, 2025 3 AM PT 1 The ﬁfth installment of the Desert X biennial is the smallest yet, with just 11 sculptures on view around the Coachella Valley. A mammoth ‘desert Stonehenge’ by Guadalajara-based Jose Dávila steals the show. A service station for the soul by L.A.’s Alison Saar and a 1,300- foot mirrored “zip-line” by Swiss artist Raphael Hefti offer distinctive pleasures. Desert X, the biennial exhibition of site-related installation art commissioned for varied locations in and around Palm Springs, continues to shrink. From 16 artists for the inaugural in 2017, and the same number (plus three collectives) two years later, subsequent iterations have gotten steadily smaller. Just 11 artists are participating in the latest version, with only nine works ready at its March 8 opening. (The remaining two were expected to be completed soon.) Smaller isn’t necessarily lesser, of course, although few of these projects are compelling. The somewhat more compact map of Coachella Valley sites being used this time is one benefit: No driving 198 miles to and from the vicinity of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway and the edge of the Salton Sea, as was necessary in 2019. Still, Desert X 2025 does feel thin. Only three installations stand out — one at the foot of a hiking trail in a Palm Desert park, the other two in dusty landscapes in Desert Hot Springs. Jose Dávila, “The act of being together,” 2025, marble (Christopher Knight / Los Angeles Times) The knockout is “The act of being together,” a monumental construction of stacked blocks of marble by Jose Dávila, 51, who is based in Guadalajara, Mexico. Twelve massive chunks of white stone were quarried there, transported in their raw state across the border and piled in six pairs adjacent to a Desert Hot Springs wind farm. The shrewd, vivifying juxtaposition pits crude, primal, static stone, its huge weight pressing the ground beneath your feet, against sleek, industrially elegant windmills spinning overhead to catch the invisible airstream and generate similarly imperceptible energy. Five chunky pairs are arrayed around a central stack. Inevitable are thoughts of ancient Stonehenge, or perhaps primordial cairns marking trails or burial grounds in premodern societies. You are at a ceremonial site, but here the ritual is distinctive and contemporary: The pomp and circumstance in biennial art exhibitions like Desert X beckon the faithful to assemble from far and wide. Borders get crossed, materially and conceptually. Dávila’s sculpture is conscious of its role as an engine for “the act of being together.” It’s raining men at the Getty’s survey of Impressionist painter Gustave Caillebotte March 4, 2025 What’s beautifully articulated is the precariousness of that event. Dávila has stacked the stones carefully, with no sense of physical danger in the way one massive rock is placed atop the other. Yet, these compositions are not neat and clean. Upper blocks project out several feet from their base, sit on the edge or stand tall and lean. These sculptural elements build on the history of simplified geometric forms in Richard Serra’s exceptional minimalist “prop” works, where massive plates of lead and steel lean against each other, providing contrarian weight to stand up and defy gravity’s relentless pull. But, unlike the industrial materials that Serra leaned and stacked, this sculpture’s classical legacy of marble is Dávila’s chosen reference. Art’s past is juxtaposed with the desert’s advanced industrial turbines. Dávila’s huge sculptural ensemble appears permanent, which would be great, although its elements may be dispersed when Desert X closes on May 11, as these projects typically are. (According to a spokesperson, the sculpture’s ultimate fate is under discussion.) About five minutes away, a poetic gas station by Los Angeles artist Alison Saar awaits your car’s arrival. Alison Saar, “Soul Service Station,” 2025, mixed media (Lance Gerber / Desert X) “Soul Service Station” derives from an earlier, considerably different work the artist made 40 years ago in Roswell, N.M., when she was not yet 30. Signs assembled from vehicle tires line a dusty pedestrian route from the paved road to her gas station — a cleverly suggestive Shell station, apparently, given the chrome conches adorning the pump handles. (Ten million years ago, the Coachella Valley was at the bottom of a sea.) The signs’ messages are winking bits of inspirational doggerel by poet Harryette Mullen (“When your heart has fallen flat, we pump it up.”) At the end of the short trail, the fuel offered inside Saar’s compact service station, a shiny tin shack sheltered among trees, is spiritual nourishment. The sustenance is presided over by a sculpture of an Amazonian woman, who wields a squeegee rather than a lance. (“When you can’t see ahead, we wipe your windshield clean and clear.”) She, like the charming shack, is sheathed in sheets of old-fashioned ceiling tin, a staple of the artist’s work. This signature material dates to 19th century America, when it emerged as a mass- produced, middle-class design element to compete with unique, aristocratic plaster ceilings. If accessible democratic architectural material can be identified, this is it. Inside Alison Saar’s “Soul Service Station,” an Amazon wields a squeegee (Christopher Knight / Los Angeles Times) Commentary: Fire could have destroyed the Getty’s irreplaceable art. Should the museum move? March 13, 2025 A half-hour away in Palm Desert, Swiss artist Raphael Hefti, 46, has stretched an impossibly long strip of reinforced fire-hose material, jet black on one side and mirror-bright silver on the other. The aerial strip, swaying overhead in the breeze, is roughly 1,300 feet long — more than 3 ½ football fields. The band is anchored from a high rocky cliff at one end, near the start of a well-used hiking trail, and a tall steel support drilled into the flat desert at the other. An engineering feat, for sure, the resulting catenary curve in the sagging line is a visual treat as well, buoyant and struggling against the pull of gravity for no other reason than to delight. Without the structural principles behind catenary curves, there would be no Gothic cathedrals or Renaissance domes — nor, for that matter, any lacy spiderwebs. Hefti’s curve is shallow in the extreme, given the vast length, and suggests environmental, maybe even planetary scale. Twisting in space, the slender mirrored-line flashes in and out of sight, depending on the time of day, the angle of the sun and shifting weather conditions. At night in ambient light, it’s barely visible, competing with a canopy of stars. Raphael Hefti, “Five things you can’t wear on TV,” 2025, mixed media (Lance Gerber / Desert X) In a rugged desert park, the linear sculpture feels at once bold and fragile, muscular and delicate. Hefti has titled the work “Five things you can’t wear on TV,” a sly reference to cautions against wearing pinstripes on camera, lest moiré patterns interfere with a television monitor’s crisp electronic imagery. The title positions the perceptually fluctuating work as existing outside routine contemporary aspirations; instead, it occupies a witty place in a vaguely absurd counterculture. The exhibition, organized by Desert X artistic director Neville Wakefield and curator Kaitlin Garcia-Maestas, director at Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens, N.Y., includes additional installations of relatively routine fare by Sanford Biggers, Agnes Denes, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Sarah Meyohas, Ronald Real and Muhannad Shono. Still to come: Kimsooja and Kipwani Kiwanga. The postpandemic sluggishness in arts fundraising and audience numbers still being felt by many cultural institutions may explain this year’s more modest ambitions. The once-exciting biennial program also shot itself in the foot in 2019, taking a multimillion-dollar donation from Saudi Arabia. Desert X is still co-organizing installations there, in what is a blatant case of art-washing to polish the soiled international reputation of a murderous, absolute monarchy where free expression is forbidden. Three works in the Coachella Valley are as worthwhile as any Desert X has yet produced, but that’s barely enough for a festival. More to Read New LACMA building to get monumental artworks to join ‘Urban Light’ and the Rock March 10, 2025 Our guide for what to see during Frieze Los Angeles Feb. 18, 2025 Salvation Mountain, one of California’s great art oddities, partially collapsed. Devotees vow to save it Nov. 26, 2024 Show Comments ENTERTAINMENT & ARTS ARTS MUSEUMS & ART THINGS TO DO The biggest entertainment stories Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. Christopher Knight Los Angeles Times art critic Christopher Knight won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for criticism and was a finalist for the prize in 1991, 2001 and 2007. In 2020, he also received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Art Journalism from the Rabkin Foundation. More From the Los Angeles Times ENTERTAINMENT & ARTS We asked if the Getty should move. Here’s how readers responded March 18, 2025 POLITICS ‘The only thing still left.’ Volunteers race to save Altadena’s vintage tiles from the bulldozers March 18, 2025 TRAVEL & EXPERIENCES 11 awe-inspiring things to do in Carmel Valley that take you beyond the quaint seaside March 17, 2025 ENTERTAINMENT & ARTS Now streaming, Irish Rep’s ‘Beckett Briefs,’ headlined by F. Murray Abraham, asks the essential questions March 16, 2025 Most Read in Entertainment & Arts TELEVISION Douglas Kiker reportedly looked so unwell before his death that a passerby called 911 to report it March 17, 2025 HOLLYWOOD INC. Paramount+ gains altitude from streaming bets. Can it compete long term? March 18, 2025 Commentary: ‘Looney Tunes’ has been removed from Max. This is why it feels like an attack March 18, 2025 HOLLYWOOD INC. Why fans are still coming to ‘The Office’ 20 years later March 18, 2025 Subscribers are Reading How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Adam Devine Kink and rough sex are at the heart of a rape case against an actor Hiltzik: Most of what you’ve heard about the stock market’s gyrations is wrong, probably Contributor: California needs to think outside the blue box Roberts rejects Trump’s call for impeaching judge who ruled against his deportation plans Latest Entertainment & Arts Hollywood creatives urge government to defend copyright laws against AI 1 hour ago Tracy Morgan posts proof of life after vomiting courtside at last night’s Knicks game 2 hours ago Irish leaders slam mixed martial arts ﬁghter Conor McGregor for cozy White House visit with Trump March 18, 2025 Bert Kreischer shares his ‘Lucky’ secret to success in comedy. Hint: It has nothing to do with hard work March 18, 2025 11 years after Mickey Rooney’s death, prized memorabilia from his estate will be auctioned March 18, 2025 Share FOR SUBSCRIBERS FOR SUBSCRIBERS FOR SUBSCRIBERS Enter email address SIGN ME UP Things to Do Weekend Travel & Experiences Arts View All LOG IN Subscribe for unlimited access Site Map Follow Us eNewspaper Coupons Find/Post Jobs Place an Ad Media Kit: Why the L. A. Times? Copyright © 2025, Los Angeles Times | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | CA Notice of Collection | Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information Christopher KnightEntertainment & ArtsA modern Stonehenge rises in Desert Hot Springs: Here are thestandouts in Desert X 2025Jose Dávila, “The act of being together,” 2025, marble (Christopher Knight / Los Angeles Times)By Christopher KnightArt Critic March 17, 2025 3 AM PT1The ﬁfth installment of the Desert X biennial is the smallest yet,with just 11 sculptures on view around the Coachella Valley.A mammoth ‘desert Stonehenge’ by Guadalajara-based JoseDávila steals the show.A service station for the soul by L.A.’s Alison Saar and a 1,300-foot mirrored “zip-line” by Swiss artist Raphael Hefti offerdistinctive pleasures.Desert X, the biennial exhibition of site-related installation art commissioned forvaried locations in and around Palm Springs, continues to shrink.From 16 artists for the inaugural in 2017, and the same number (plus three collectives) two years later, subsequent iterations have gotten steadily smaller. Just 11 artists are participating in the latest version, with only nine works ready at its March 8 opening. (The remaining two were expected to be completed soon.) Smaller isn’t necessarily lesser, of course, although few of these projects are compelling. The somewhat more compact map of Coachella Valley sites being used this time is one benefit: No driving 198 miles to and from the vicinity of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway and the edge of the Salton Sea, as was necessary in 2019. Still, Desert X 2025 does feel thin. Only three installations stand out — one at the foot of a hiking trail in a Palm Desert park, the other two in dusty landscapes in Desert Hot Springs. Jose Dávila, “The act of being together,” 2025, marble (Christopher Knight / Los Angeles Times) The knockout is “The act of being together,” a monumental construction of stacked blocks of marble by Jose Dávila, 51, who is based in Guadalajara, Mexico. Twelve massive chunks of white stone were quarried there, transported in their raw state across the border and piled in six pairs adjacent to a Desert Hot Springs wind farm. The shrewd, vivifying juxtaposition pits crude, primal, static stone, its huge weight pressing the ground beneath your feet, against sleek, industrially elegant windmills spinning overhead to catch the invisible airstream and generate similarly imperceptible energy. Five chunky pairs are arrayed around a central stack. Inevitable are thoughts of ancient Stonehenge, or perhaps primordial cairns marking trails or burial grounds in premodern societies. You are at a ceremonial site, but here the ritual is distinctive and contemporary: The pomp and circumstance in biennial art exhibitions like Desert X beckon the faithful to assemble from far and wide. Borders get crossed, materially and conceptually. Dávila’s sculpture is conscious of its role as an engine for “the act of being together.” It’s raining men at the Getty’s survey of Impressionist painter Gustave Caillebotte March 4, 2025 What’s beautifully articulated is the precariousness of that event. Dávila has stacked the stones carefully, with no sense of physical danger in the way one massive rock is placed atop the other. Yet, these compositions are not neat and clean. Upper blocks project out several feet from their base, sit on the edge or stand tall and lean. These sculptural elements build on the history of simplified geometric forms in Richard Serra’s exceptional minimalist “prop” works, where massive plates of lead and steel lean against each other, providing contrarian weight to stand up and defy gravity’s relentless pull. But, unlike the industrial materials that Serra leaned and stacked, this sculpture’s classical legacy of marble is Dávila’s chosen reference. Art’s past is juxtaposed with the desert’s advanced industrial turbines. Dávila’s huge sculptural ensemble appears permanent, which would be great, although its elements may be dispersed when Desert X closes on May 11, as these projects typically are. (According to a spokesperson, the sculpture’s ultimate fate is under discussion.) About five minutes away, a poetic gas station by Los Angeles artist Alison Saar awaits your car’s arrival. Alison Saar, “Soul Service Station,” 2025, mixed media (Lance Gerber / Desert X) “Soul Service Station” derives from an earlier, considerably different work the artist made 40 years ago in Roswell, N.M., when she was not yet 30. Signs assembled from vehicle tires line a dusty pedestrian route from the paved road to her gas station — a cleverly suggestive Shell station, apparently, given the chrome conches adorning the pump handles. (Ten million years ago, the Coachella Valley was at the bottom of a sea.) The signs’ messages are winking bits of inspirational doggerel by poet Harryette Mullen (“When your heart has fallen flat, we pump it up.”) At the end of the short trail, the fuel offered inside Saar’s compact service station, a shiny tin shack sheltered among trees, is spiritual nourishment. The sustenance is presided over by a sculpture of an Amazonian woman, who wields a squeegee rather than a lance. (“When you can’t see ahead, we wipe your windshield clean and clear.”) She, like the charming shack, is sheathed in sheets of old-fashioned ceiling tin, a staple of the artist’s work. This signature material dates to 19th century America, when it emerged as a mass- produced, middle-class design element to compete with unique, aristocratic plaster ceilings. If accessible democratic architectural material can be identified, this is it. Inside Alison Saar’s “Soul Service Station,” an Amazon wields a squeegee (Christopher Knight / Los Angeles Times) Commentary: Fire could have destroyed the Getty’s irreplaceable art. Should the museum move? March 13, 2025 A half-hour away in Palm Desert, Swiss artist Raphael Hefti, 46, has stretched an impossibly long strip of reinforced fire-hose material, jet black on one side and mirror-bright silver on the other. The aerial strip, swaying overhead in the breeze, is roughly 1,300 feet long — more than 3 ½ football fields. The band is anchored from a high rocky cliff at one end, near the start of a well-used hiking trail, and a tall steel support drilled into the flat desert at the other. An engineering feat, for sure, the resulting catenary curve in the sagging line is a visual treat as well, buoyant and struggling against the pull of gravity for no other reason than to delight. Without the structural principles behind catenary curves, there would be no Gothic cathedrals or Renaissance domes — nor, for that matter, any lacy spiderwebs. Hefti’s curve is shallow in the extreme, given the vast length, and suggests environmental, maybe even planetary scale. Twisting in space, the slender mirrored-line flashes in and out of sight, depending on the time of day, the angle of the sun and shifting weather conditions. At night in ambient light, it’s barely visible, competing with a canopy of stars. Raphael Hefti, “Five things you can’t wear on TV,” 2025, mixed media (Lance Gerber / Desert X) In a rugged desert park, the linear sculpture feels at once bold and fragile, muscular and delicate. Hefti has titled the work “Five things you can’t wear on TV,” a sly reference to cautions against wearing pinstripes on camera, lest moiré patterns interfere with a television monitor’s crisp electronic imagery. The title positions the perceptually fluctuating work as existing outside routine contemporary aspirations; instead, it occupies a witty place in a vaguely absurd counterculture. The exhibition, organized by Desert X artistic director Neville Wakefield and curator Kaitlin Garcia-Maestas, director at Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens, N.Y., includes additional installations of relatively routine fare by Sanford Biggers, Agnes Denes, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Sarah Meyohas, Ronald Real and Muhannad Shono. Still to come: Kimsooja and Kipwani Kiwanga. The postpandemic sluggishness in arts fundraising and audience numbers still being felt by many cultural institutions may explain this year’s more modest ambitions. The once-exciting biennial program also shot itself in the foot in 2019, taking a multimillion-dollar donation from Saudi Arabia. Desert X is still co-organizing installations there, in what is a blatant case of art-washing to polish the soiled international reputation of a murderous, absolute monarchy where free expression is forbidden. Three works in the Coachella Valley are as worthwhile as any Desert X has yet produced, but that’s barely enough for a festival. More to Read New LACMA building to get monumental artworks to join ‘Urban Light’ and the Rock March 10, 2025 Our guide for what to see during Frieze Los Angeles Feb. 18, 2025 Salvation Mountain, one of California’s great art oddities, partially collapsed. Devotees vow to save it Nov. 26, 2024 Show Comments ENTERTAINMENT & ARTS ARTS MUSEUMS & ART THINGS TO DO The biggest entertainment stories Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. Christopher Knight Los Angeles Times art critic Christopher Knight won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for criticism and was a finalist for the prize in 1991, 2001 and 2007. In 2020, he also received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Art Journalism from the Rabkin Foundation. More From the Los Angeles Times ENTERTAINMENT & ARTS We asked if the Getty should move. Here’s how readers responded March 18, 2025 POLITICS ‘The only thing still left.’ Volunteers race to save Altadena’s vintage tiles from the bulldozers March 18, 2025 TRAVEL & EXPERIENCES 11 awe-inspiring things to do in Carmel Valley that take you beyond the quaint seaside March 17, 2025 ENTERTAINMENT & ARTS Now streaming, Irish Rep’s ‘Beckett Briefs,’ headlined by F. Murray Abraham, asks the essential questions March 16, 2025 Most Read in Entertainment & Arts TELEVISION Douglas Kiker reportedly looked so unwell before his death that a passerby called 911 to report it March 17, 2025 HOLLYWOOD INC. Paramount+ gains altitude from streaming bets. Can it compete long term? March 18, 2025 Commentary: ‘Looney Tunes’ has been removed from Max. This is why it feels like an attack March 18, 2025 HOLLYWOOD INC. Why fans are still coming to ‘The Office’ 20 years later March 18, 2025 Subscribers are ReadingHow to have the best Sunday in L.A., accordingto Adam DevineKink and rough sex are at the heart of a rapecase against an actorHiltzik: Most of what you’ve heard about thestock market’s gyrations is wrong, probablyContributor: California needs to think outsidethe blue boxRoberts rejects Trump’s call for impeachingjudge who ruled against his deportation plansLatest Entertainment & ArtsHollywood creatives urge government to defendcopyright laws against AI1 hour agoTracy Morgan posts proof of life after vomitingcourtside at last night’s Knicks game2 hours agoIrish leaders slam mixed martial arts ﬁghterConor McGregor for cozy White House visit withTrumpMarch 18, 2025Bert Kreischer shares his ‘Lucky’ secret tosuccess in comedy. Hint: It has nothing to dowith hard workMarch 18, 202511 years after Mickey Rooney’s death, prizedmemorabilia from his estate will be auctionedMarch 18, 2025Share FOR SUBSCRIBERS FOR SUBSCRIBERS FOR SUBSCRIBERS Enter email address SIGN ME UP Things to Do Weekend Travel & Experiences Arts View All Sections LOG IN Subscribe for unlimited access Site Map Follow Us eNewspaper Coupons Find/Post Jobs Place an Ad Media Kit: Why the L. A. Times? Copyright © 2025, Los Angeles Times | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | CA Notice of Collection | Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information Christopher KnightEntertainment & ArtsA modern Stonehenge rises in Desert Hot Springs: Here are thestandouts in Desert X 2025Jose Dávila, “The act of being together,” 2025, marble (Christopher Knight / Los Angeles Times)By Christopher KnightArt Critic March 17, 2025 3 AM PT1The ﬁfth installment of the Desert X biennial is the smallest yet,with just 11 sculptures on view around the Coachella Valley.A mammoth ‘desert Stonehenge’ by Guadalajara-based JoseDávila steals the show.A service station for the soul by L.A.’s Alison Saar and a 1,300-foot mirrored “zip-line” by Swiss artist Raphael Hefti offerdistinctive pleasures.Desert X, the biennial exhibition of site-related installation art commissioned forvaried locations in and around Palm Springs, continues to shrink.From 16 artists for the inaugural in 2017, and the same number (plus threecollectives) two years later, subsequent iterations have gotten steadily smaller. Just 11artists are participating in the latest version, with only nine works ready at its March8 opening. (The remaining two were expected to be completed soon.) Smaller isn’tnecessarily lesser, of course, although few of these projects are compelling. Thesomewhat more compact map of Coachella Valley sites being used this time is one benefit: No driving 198 miles to and from the vicinity of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway and the edge of the Salton Sea, as was necessary in 2019. Still, Desert X 2025 does feel thin. Only three installations stand out — one at the foot of a hiking trail in a Palm Desert park, the other two in dusty landscapes in Desert Hot Springs. Jose Dávila, “The act of being together,” 2025, marble (Christopher Knight / Los Angeles Times) The knockout is “The act of being together,” a monumental construction of stacked blocks of marble by Jose Dávila, 51, who is based in Guadalajara, Mexico. Twelve massive chunks of white stone were quarried there, transported in their raw state across the border and piled in six pairs adjacent to a Desert Hot Springs wind farm. The shrewd, vivifying juxtaposition pits crude, primal, static stone, its huge weight pressing the ground beneath your feet, against sleek, industrially elegant windmills spinning overhead to catch the invisible airstream and generate similarly imperceptible energy. Five chunky pairs are arrayed around a central stack. Inevitable are thoughts of ancient Stonehenge, or perhaps primordial cairns marking trails or burial grounds in premodern societies. You are at a ceremonial site, but here the ritual is distinctive and contemporary: The pomp and circumstance in biennial art exhibitions like Desert X beckon the faithful to assemble from far and wide. Borders get crossed, materially and conceptually. Dávila’s sculpture is conscious of its role as an engine for “the act of being together.” It’s raining men at the Getty’s survey of Impressionist painter Gustave Caillebotte March 4, 2025 What’s beautifully articulated is the precariousness of that event. Dávila has stacked the stones carefully, with no sense of physical danger in the way one massive rock is placed atop the other. Yet, these compositions are not neat and clean. Upper blocks project out several feet from their base, sit on the edge or stand tall and lean. These sculptural elements build on the history of simplified geometric forms in Richard Serra’s exceptional minimalist “prop” works, where massive plates of lead and steel lean against each other, providing contrarian weight to stand up and defy gravity’s relentless pull. But, unlike the industrial materials that Serra leaned and stacked, this sculpture’s classical legacy of marble is Dávila’s chosen reference. Art’s past is juxtaposed with the desert’s advanced industrial turbines. Dávila’s huge sculptural ensemble appears permanent, which would be great, although its elements may be dispersed when Desert X closes on May 11, as these projects typically are. (According to a spokesperson, the sculpture’s ultimate fate is under discussion.) About five minutes away, a poetic gas station by Los Angeles artist Alison Saar awaits your car’s arrival. Alison Saar, “Soul Service Station,” 2025, mixed media (Lance Gerber / Desert X) “Soul Service Station” derives from an earlier, considerably different work the artist made 40 years ago in Roswell, N.M., when she was not yet 30. Signs assembled from vehicle tires line a dusty pedestrian route from the paved road to her gas station — a cleverly suggestive Shell station, apparently, given the chrome conches adorning the pump handles. (Ten million years ago, the Coachella Valley was at the bottom of a sea.) The signs’ messages are winking bits of inspirational doggerel by poet Harryette Mullen (“When your heart has fallen flat, we pump it up.”) At the end of the short trail, the fuel offered inside Saar’s compact service station, a shiny tin shack sheltered among trees, is spiritual nourishment. The sustenance is presided over by a sculpture of an Amazonian woman, who wields a squeegee rather than a lance. (“When you can’t see ahead, we wipe your windshield clean and clear.”) She, like the charming shack, is sheathed in sheets of old-fashioned ceiling tin, a staple of the artist’s work. This signature material dates to 19th century America, when it emerged as a mass- produced, middle-class design element to compete with unique, aristocratic plaster ceilings. If accessible democratic architectural material can be identified, this is it. Inside Alison Saar’s “Soul Service Station,” an Amazon wields a squeegee (Christopher Knight / Los Angeles Times) Commentary: Fire could have destroyed the Getty’s irreplaceable art. Should the museum move? March 13, 2025 A half-hour away in Palm Desert, Swiss artist Raphael Hefti, 46, has stretched an impossibly long strip of reinforced fire-hose material, jet black on one side and mirror-bright silver on the other. The aerial strip, swaying overhead in the breeze, is roughly 1,300 feet long — more than 3 ½ football fields. The band is anchored from a high rocky cliff at one end, near the start of a well-used hiking trail, and a tall steel support drilled into the flat desert at the other. An engineering feat, for sure, the resulting catenary curve in the sagging line is a visual treat as well, buoyant and struggling against the pull of gravity for no other reason than to delight. Without the structural principles behind catenary curves, there would be no Gothic cathedrals or Renaissance domes — nor, for that matter, any lacy spiderwebs. Hefti’s curve is shallow in the extreme, given the vast length, and suggests environmental, maybe even planetary scale. Twisting in space, the slender mirrored-line flashes in and out of sight, depending on the time of day, the angle of the sun and shifting weather conditions. At night in ambient light, it’s barely visible, competing with a canopy of stars. Raphael Hefti, “Five things you can’t wear on TV,” 2025, mixed media (Lance Gerber / Desert X) In a rugged desert park, the linear sculpture feels at once bold and fragile, muscular and delicate. Hefti has titled the work “Five things you can’t wear on TV,” a sly reference to cautions against wearing pinstripes on camera, lest moiré patterns interfere with a television monitor’s crisp electronic imagery. The title positions the perceptually fluctuating work as existing outside routine contemporary aspirations; instead, it occupies a witty place in a vaguely absurd counterculture. The exhibition, organized by Desert X artistic director Neville Wakefield and curator Kaitlin Garcia-Maestas, director at Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens, N.Y., includes additional installations of relatively routine fare by Sanford Biggers, Agnes Denes, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Sarah Meyohas, Ronald Real and Muhannad Shono. Still to come: Kimsooja and Kipwani Kiwanga. The postpandemic sluggishness in arts fundraising and audience numbers still being felt by many cultural institutions may explain this year’s more modest ambitions. The once-exciting biennial program also shot itself in the foot in 2019, taking a multimillion-dollar donation from Saudi Arabia. Desert X is still co-organizing installations there, in what is a blatant case of art-washing to polish the soiled international reputation of a murderous, absolute monarchy where free expression is forbidden. Three works in the Coachella Valley are as worthwhile as any Desert X has yet produced, but that’s barely enough for a festival. More to Read New LACMA building to get monumental artworks to join ‘Urban Light’ and the Rock March 10, 2025 Our guide for what to see during Frieze Los Angeles Feb. 18, 2025 Salvation Mountain, one of California’s great art oddities, partially collapsed. Devotees vow to save it Nov. 26, 2024 Show Comments ENTERTAINMENT & ARTS ARTS MUSEUMS & ART THINGS TO DO The biggest entertainment stories Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. Christopher Knight Los Angeles Times art critic Christopher Knight won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for criticism and was a finalist for the prize in 1991, 2001 and 2007. In 2020, he also received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Art Journalism from the Rabkin Foundation. More From the Los Angeles Times ENTERTAINMENT & ARTS We asked if the Getty should move. Here’s how readers responded March 18, 2025 POLITICS ‘The only thing still left.’ Volunteers race to save Altadena’s vintage tiles from the bulldozers March 18, 2025 TRAVEL & EXPERIENCES 11 awe-inspiring things to do in Carmel Valley that take you beyond the quaint seaside March 17, 2025 ENTERTAINMENT & ARTS Now streaming, Irish Rep’s ‘Beckett Briefs,’ headlined by F. Murray Abraham, asks the essential questions March 16, 2025 Most Read in Entertainment & Arts TELEVISION Douglas Kiker reportedly looked so unwell before his death that a passerby called 911 to report it March 17, 2025 HOLLYWOOD INC. 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Why fans are still coming to ‘The Office’ 20 years later March 18, 2025 Subscribers are ReadingHow to have the best Sunday in L.A., accordingto Adam DevineKink and rough sex are at the heart of a rapecase against an actorHiltzik: Most of what you’ve heard about thestock market’s gyrations is wrong, probablyContributor: California needs to think outsidethe blue boxRoberts rejects Trump’s call for impeachingjudge who ruled against his deportation plansLatest Entertainment & ArtsHollywood creatives urge government to defendcopyright laws against AI1 hour agoTracy Morgan posts proof of life after vomitingcourtside at last night’s Knicks game2 hours agoIrish leaders slam mixed martial arts ﬁghterConor McGregor for cozy White House visit withTrumpMarch 18, 2025Bert Kreischer shares his ‘Lucky’ secret tosuccess in comedy. Hint: It has nothing to dowith hard workMarch 18, 202511 years after Mickey Rooney’s death, prizedmemorabilia from his estate will be auctionedMarch 18, 2025Share FOR SUBSCRIBERS FOR SUBSCRIBERS FOR SUBSCRIBERS Enter email address SIGN ME UP Things to Do Weekend Travel & Experiences Arts View All Sections LOG IN 104 home > art > desert X 2025 opens with artworks that speak to california’s vast coachella valley desert X 2025 opens with artworks that speak to california's vast coachella valley 203 shares 11 ARTISTS ARRIVE TO COACHELLA VALLEY FOR DESERT X 2025 Stretching across California’s Coachella Valley, the 2025 edi!on of Desert X transforms the desert into a living conversa!on between art, land, and !me. Through eleven newly commissioned installa!ons, ar!sts from Asia, Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East engage with the desert’s vastness as both subject and collaborator. The artworks confront the weight of history embedded in the landscape while specula!ng on its future, addressing themes of Indigenous futurism, design ac!vism, and the imprint of human interven!on. Some pieces take on solid architectural forms, asser!ng a presence in the shi"ing terrain, while others embrace the ephemeral, using wind, light, and movement to underscore the desert’s constant state of ﬂux. In a region where wilderness and urban expansion collide, these works challenge percep!ons of permanence, invi!ng visitors to reconsider the desert not as an empty expanse but as a layered site of memory, transforma!on, and resistance. The works will be on view across the Coachella Valley from March 8th — May 11th, 2025 Coachella Valley, California | image © Lance Gerber MONUMENTAL ARTWORKS DRAW FROM ANCESTRAL WISDOM From Sanford Biggers’ explora!ons of cultural symbology to Agnes Denes’ medita!ons on ecological stewardship, each installa!on for Desert X 2025 oﬀers a dis!nct lens on the complexi!es of desert life in California. Ronald Rael and Cannupa Hanska Luger draw from Indigenous knowledge to propose alterna!ve ways of engaging with land. Meanwhile, Raphael He"i, Jose Dávila, and Sarah Meyohas examine the shi"ing boundaries between technology and nature. At once specula!ve and deeply rooted, the works on view stretch across !me — drawing from ancestral wisdom while interroga!ng the asymmetries of colonial power and the accelera!ng impact of emerging technologies. In its ﬁ"h itera!on, Desert X con!nues to use the desert as a space of inquiry, where art reﬂects, reframes, and reimagines our rela!onship with the world we inhabit. Jose Dávila, The act of being together, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber Jose Dávila’s ‘The act of being together’ explores material density, gravity, and !me through a series of unaltered marble blocks sourced from a quarry just across the U.S.–Mexico border. Inspired by Robert Smithson’s site/nonsite dialec!cs, the ar!st establishes a rela!onship between absence and presence, migra!on, and transforma!on. As the stones traverse both physical and metaphorical borders, they evoke unseen histories and future possibili!es, appearing as if splintered across !me and space. Their casual arrangement suggests archaeological ruins in reverse — simultaneously remnants of the past and markers of an emerging future — invi!ng reﬂec!on on human transience within an expansive and shi"ing landscape. Sarah Meyohas, Truth Arrives in Slanted Beams, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber Sarah Meyohas’ completes ‘Truth Arrives in Slanted Beams’ as an immersive installa!on that merges analog and digital technologies to explore percep!on and light. Situated in the Palm Desert, the ar!st‘s work harnesses ‘caus!cs’ — light pa$erns formed by refrac!on and reﬂec!on — projec!ng sunlight onto a ribbon-like structure cascading across the landscape. Inspired by ancient !mekeeping and 20th-century land art, the installa!on features mirrored panels designed through computer algorithms, each inscribed with the poe!c phrase, ‘truth arrives in slanted beams.’ As visitors adjust the mirrors, they reveal shi"ing projec!ons, illusions, and pa$erns, evoking a mirage-like longing for water in the arid expanse. Ronald Rael, Adobe Oasis, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber ‘Adobe Oasis’ by Ronald Rael is a sculptural demonstra!on of the revival of ancestral building techniques through contemporary technology. Situated in Palm Springs, the installa!on reimagines the poten!al of adobe — an ancient, sustainable material — through an innova!ve 3D-prin!ng process. Drawing inspira!on from Indigenous and earthen construc!on tradi!ons, the ar!st’s corrugated mud structures echo the texture of palm trees, referencing the enduring oases of the Coachella Valley. Set against relics of western expansion and modern real estate, Adobe Oasis presents a compelling alterna!ve to environmentally harmful architecture, emphasizing adobe’s aﬀordability, energy eﬃciency, and resilience. Sanford Biggers, Unsui (Mirror), Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber Sanford Biggers’ ‘Unsui (Mirror)’ is a monumental sequin-covered sculpture at the James O. Jessie Desert Highland Unity Center in Palm Springs. Towering over thirty feet, the shimmering cloud forms draw from Buddhist concepts of unsui (‘clouds and water’ in Japanese), symbolizing movement, transforma!on, and interconnec!on. Reﬂec!ng sunlight and shi"ing with the wind, the sculptures evoke both the ephemeral and the eternal, mirroring the interplay between natural forces and cultural narra!ves. Rooted in the ar!st’s broader prac!ce of remixing historical symbols, the work also acknowledges the history of the surrounding Black community, which was formed a"er the displacement of residents from Sec!on 14 in the 1960s. In this context, Unsui (Mirror) stands as both a medita!on on freedom and a symbol of resilience. Alison Saar, Soul Service Sta!on, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber Alison Saar’s ‘Soul Service Sta!on’ is a desert res!ng place that oﬀers spiritual replenishment in the form of art, poetry, and communal engagement. Inspired by the gas sta!ons of the American West, the ar!st’s sta!on brings healing and renewal. At its heart stands a hand-carved female guardian, symbolizing strength and protec!on. Inside, an assemblage of devo!onal objects and furnishings cra"ed from salvaged materials merge Saar’s transforma!ve prac!ce with community collabora!on, including foil repoussé medallions created by Coachella Valley students. A repurposed gas pump plays poetry by Harrye$e Mullen, further enriching the experience. Rooted in Saar’s explora!on of cultural memory, Black female iden!ty, and spiritual tradi!ons, Soul Service Sta!on is a refuge for weary travelers, invi!ng them to pause, reﬂect, and recharge. Swiss ar!st Raphael He"i’s ‘Five Things You Can’t Wear on TV’ is a site-speciﬁc installa!on in Palm Desert that explores percep!on and immateriality through industrial materials. Inspired by his Alpine upbringing and later encounters with the desert’s vast horizontality, He"i employs a black woven polymer ﬁber — originally designed for ﬁre hoses — coated with a reﬂec!ve ﬁnish. Suspended in tension between two distant points, the material forms an ar!ﬁcial horizon, oscilla!ng in the wind like a vibra!ng guitar string. This kine!c movement distorts spa!al percep!on, mirroring the ephemeral nature of desert mirages where hard lines blur and reform. The piece transforms environmental forces — wind, light, and atmospheric shi"s — into an evolving visual phenomenon, invi!ng viewers to engage with the poe!c interplay of distance, proximity, and percep!on. Agnes Denes, The Living Pyramid, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber ‘The Living Pyramid’ by Hungarian ar!st Agnes Denes is a monumental sculptural and environmental interven!on at Sunnylands Center & Gardens, created for Desert X 2025. Integra!ng Denes’ long-standing explora!on of pyramidal forms with her commitment to public landworks, the piece reﬂects both mathema!cal precision and organic transforma!on. Planted with na!ve vegeta!on, its structure evolves over six months as plants sprout, bloom, seed, and decay, embodying the dynamic interplay between nature and civiliza!on. Echoing Sunnylands’ role as a diploma!c hub, the pyramid serves as a living metaphor for societal growth and imperfec!on. Ac!vated through educa!onal programs, it creates environmental awareness and collec!ve stewardship, transforming beyond form into a social construct of care and engagement. Cannupa Hanska Luger, G.H.O.S.T. Ride, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber ‘G.H.O.S.T. Ride’ by Cannupa Hanska Luger is a mobile, nomadic installa!on that expands his Future Ancestral Technologies (FAT) series, envisioning sustainable, land-based futures through specula!ve ﬁc!on. Reimagining his Repurposed Archaic Technology vehicle (RAT Rod), the ar!st transforms it into a reﬂec!ve, camouﬂaged structure traversing the Coachella Valley, merging with the landscape while serving as both a mirror and an extension of the environment. Constructed from industrial detritus, ceramics, and a !pi, the vehicle integrates specula!ve water and light-gathering systems, imagining an adap!ve, resilient future. Visitors may encounter its !me-traveling occupants — a family from an undeﬁned future — promp!ng reﬂec!ons on survival, Indigenous knowledge, and the rela!onship between humanity and the land. Rooted in the ethos of Future Ancestral Technologies, G.H.O.S.T. Ride challenges colonial narra!ves of extrac!on, urging us to learn from the desert’s deep-!me wisdom and reconsider coexistence beyond human-centered infrastructure. Muhannad Shono’s ‘What Remains’ is a site-speciﬁc installa!on for Desert X that explores the ﬂuid nature of iden!ty and land. Using long strips of fabric infused with na!ve sand, the ar!st harnesses the desert wind as an ac!ve force, allowing the material to shi" and tangle like dunes in mo!on. The work challenges no!ons of permanence, as the wind disrupts and reshapes the fabric, crea!ng a landscape in constant ﬂux. Suspended between gravity and movement, What Remains becomes a living relic — an ephemeral memory of place, displacement, and transforma!on. project info: event: Desert X | @_desertx loca!on: Coachella Valley, California ar!sts: Sanford Biggers, Jose Dávila, Agnes Denes, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Raphael He"i, Sarah Meyohas, Ronald Rael, Alison Saar, Muhannad Shono on view: March 8th — May 11th, 2025 photography: © Lance Gerber | @lance.gerber art connec!ons: +430 !"# POPULAR NOW ART! publish my work promote my project share my vision 12k views ΝΥ photo exhibi!on13k views !c exhibi!ons11k views !ons take over amsterdam's stedelijk and van gogh museums10k views $er show explores self-expression in sparkle10k views Learn more keep up with our daily and weekly stories daily - weekly - enter your email for newsle!er subscribe see sample see sample Raphael He"i, Five Things You Can’t Wear on TV, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber Muhannad Shono, What Remains, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber 1/5 art 11 design directory courses compe!!ons shop socialize 1 home > art > desert X 2025 opens with artworks that speak to california’s vast coachella valley desert X 2025 opens with artworks that speak to california's vast coachella valley 203 shares 11 ARTISTS ARRIVE TO COACHELLA VALLEY FOR DESERT X 2025 Stretching across California’s Coachella Valley, the 2025 edi!on of Desert X transforms the desert into a living conversa!on between art, land, and !me. Through eleven newly commissioned installa!ons, ar!sts from Asia, Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East engage with the desert’s vastness as both subject and collaborator. The artworks confront the weight of history embedded in the landscape while specula!ng on its future, addressing themes of Indigenous futurism, design ac!vism, and the imprint of human interven!on. Some pieces take on solid architectural forms, asser!ng a presence in the shi"ing terrain, while others embrace the ephemeral, using wind, light, and movement to underscore the desert’s constant state of ﬂux. In a region where wilderness and urban expansion collide, these works challenge percep!ons of permanence, invi!ng visitors to reconsider the desert not as an empty expanse but as a layered site of memory, transforma!on, and resistance. The works will be on view across the Coachella Valley from March 8th — May 11th, 2025 Coachella Valley, California | image © Lance Gerber MONUMENTAL ARTWORKS DRAW FROM ANCESTRAL WISDOM From Sanford Biggers’ explora!ons of cultural symbology to Agnes Denes’ medita!ons on ecological stewardship, each installa!on for Desert X 2025 oﬀers a dis!nct lens on the complexi!es of desert life in California. Ronald Rael and Cannupa Hanska Luger draw from Indigenous knowledge to propose alterna!ve ways of engaging with land. Meanwhile, Raphael He"i, Jose Dávila, and Sarah Meyohas examine the shi"ing boundaries between technology and nature. At once specula!ve and deeply rooted, the works on view stretch across !me — drawing from ancestral wisdom while interroga!ng the asymmetries of colonial power and the accelera!ng impact of emerging technologies. In its ﬁ"h itera!on, Desert X con!nues to use the desert as a space of inquiry, where art reﬂects, reframes, and reimagines our rela!onship with the world we inhabit. Jose Dávila, The act of being together, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber Jose Dávila’s ‘The act of being together’ explores material density, gravity, and !me through a series of unaltered marble blocks sourced from a quarry just across the U.S.–Mexico border. Inspired by Robert Smithson’s site/nonsite dialec!cs, the ar!st establishes a rela!onship between absence and presence, migra!on, and transforma!on. As the stones traverse both physical and metaphorical borders, they evoke unseen histories and future possibili!es, appearing as if splintered across !me and space. Their casual arrangement suggests archaeological ruins in reverse — simultaneously remnants of the past and markers of an emerging future — invi!ng reﬂec!on on human transience within an expansive and shi"ing landscape. Sarah Meyohas, Truth Arrives in Slanted Beams, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber Sarah Meyohas’ completes ‘Truth Arrives in Slanted Beams’ as an immersive installa!on that merges analog and digital technologies to explore percep!on and light. Situated in the Palm Desert, the ar!st‘s work harnesses ‘caus!cs’ — light pa$erns formed by refrac!on and reﬂec!on — projec!ng sunlight onto a ribbon-like structure cascading across the landscape. Inspired by ancient !mekeeping and 20th-century land art, the installa!on features mirrored panels designed through computer algorithms, each inscribed with the poe!c phrase, ‘truth arrives in slanted beams.’ As visitors adjust the mirrors, they reveal shi"ing projec!ons, illusions, and pa$erns, evoking a mirage-like longing for water in the arid expanse. Ronald Rael, Adobe Oasis, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber ‘Adobe Oasis’ by Ronald Rael is a sculptural demonstra!on of the revival of ancestral building techniques through contemporary technology. Situated in Palm Springs, the installa!on reimagines the poten!al of adobe — an ancient, sustainable material — through an innova!ve 3D-prin!ng process. Drawing inspira!on from Indigenous and earthen construc!on tradi!ons, the ar!st’s corrugated mud structures echo the texture of palm trees, referencing the enduring oases of the Coachella Valley. Set against relics of western expansion and modern real estate, Adobe Oasis presents a compelling alterna!ve to environmentally harmful architecture, emphasizing adobe’s aﬀordability, energy eﬃciency, and resilience. Sanford Biggers, Unsui (Mirror), Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber Sanford Biggers’ ‘Unsui (Mirror)’ is a monumental sequin-covered sculpture at the James O. Jessie Desert Highland Unity Center in Palm Springs. Towering over thirty feet, the shimmering cloud forms draw from Buddhist concepts of unsui (‘clouds and water’ in Japanese), symbolizing movement, transforma!on, and interconnec!on. Reﬂec!ng sunlight and shi"ing with the wind, the sculptures evoke both the ephemeral and the eternal, mirroring the interplay between natural forces and cultural narra!ves. Rooted in the ar!st’s broader prac!ce of remixing historical symbols, the work also acknowledges the history of the surrounding Black community, which was formed a"er the displacement of residents from Sec!on 14 in the 1960s. In this context, Unsui (Mirror) stands as both a medita!on on freedom and a symbol of resilience. Alison Saar, Soul Service Sta!on, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber Alison Saar’s ‘Soul Service Sta!on’ is a desert res!ng place that oﬀers spiritual replenishment in the form of art, poetry, and communal engagement. Inspired by the gas sta!ons of the American West, the ar!st’s sta!on brings healing and renewal. At its heart stands a hand-carved female guardian, symbolizing strength and protec!on. Inside, an assemblage of devo!onal objects and furnishings cra"ed from salvaged materials merge Saar’s transforma!ve prac!ce with community collabora!on, including foil repoussé medallions created by Coachella Valley students. A repurposed gas pump plays poetry by Harrye$e Mullen, further enriching the experience. Rooted in Saar’s explora!on of cultural memory, Black female iden!ty, and spiritual tradi!ons, Soul Service Sta!on is a refuge for weary travelers, invi!ng them to pause, reﬂect, and recharge. Swiss ar!st Raphael He"i’s ‘Five Things You Can’t Wear on TV’ is a site-speciﬁc installa!on in Palm Desert that explores percep!on and immateriality through industrial materials. Inspired by his Alpine upbringing and later encounters with the desert’s vast horizontality, He"i employs a black woven polymer ﬁber — originally designed for ﬁre hoses — coated with a reﬂec!ve ﬁnish. Suspended in tension between two distant points, the material forms an ar!ﬁcial horizon, oscilla!ng in the wind like a vibra!ng guitar string. This kine!c movement distorts spa!al percep!on, mirroring the ephemeral nature of desert mirages where hard lines blur and reform. The piece transforms environmental forces — wind, light, and atmospheric shi"s — into an evolving visual phenomenon, invi!ng viewers to engage with the poe!c interplay of distance, proximity, and percep!on. Agnes Denes, The Living Pyramid, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber ‘The Living Pyramid’ by Hungarian ar!st Agnes Denes is a monumental sculptural and environmental interven!on at Sunnylands Center & Gardens, created for Desert X 2025. Integra!ng Denes’ long-standing explora!on of pyramidal forms with her commitment to public landworks, the piece reﬂects both mathema!cal precision and organic transforma!on. Planted with na!ve vegeta!on, its structure evolves over six months as plants sprout, bloom, seed, and decay, embodying the dynamic interplay between nature and civiliza!on. Echoing Sunnylands’ role as a diploma!c hub, the pyramid serves as a living metaphor for societal growth and imperfec!on. Ac!vated through educa!onal programs, it creates environmental awareness and collec!ve stewardship, transforming beyond form into a social construct of care and engagement. Cannupa Hanska Luger, G.H.O.S.T. Ride, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber ‘G.H.O.S.T. Ride’ by Cannupa Hanska Luger is a mobile, nomadic installa!on that expands his Future Ancestral Technologies (FAT) series, envisioning sustainable, land-based futures through specula!ve ﬁc!on. Reimagining his Repurposed Archaic Technology vehicle (RAT Rod), the ar!st transforms it into a reﬂec!ve, camouﬂaged structure traversing the Coachella Valley, merging with the landscape while serving as both a mirror and an extension of the environment. Constructed from industrial detritus, ceramics, and a !pi, the vehicle integrates specula!ve water and light-gathering systems, imagining an adap!ve, resilient future. Visitors may encounter its !me-traveling occupants — a family from an undeﬁned future — promp!ng reﬂec!ons on survival, Indigenous knowledge, and the rela!onship between humanity and the land. Rooted in the ethos of Future Ancestral Technologies, G.H.O.S.T. Ride challenges colonial narra!ves of extrac!on, urging us to learn from the desert’s deep-!me wisdom and reconsider coexistence beyond human-centered infrastructure. Muhannad Shono’s ‘What Remains’ is a site-speciﬁc installa!on for Desert X that explores the ﬂuid nature of iden!ty and land. Using long strips of fabric infused with na!ve sand, the ar!st harnesses the desert wind as an ac!ve force, allowing the material to shi" and tangle like dunes in mo!on. The work challenges no!ons of permanence, as the wind disrupts and reshapes the fabric, crea!ng a landscape in constant ﬂux. Suspended between gravity and movement, What Remains becomes a living relic — an ephemeral memory of place, displacement, and transforma!on. project info: event: Desert X | @_desertx loca!on: Coachella Valley, California ar!sts: Sanford Biggers, Jose Dávila, Agnes Denes, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Raphael He"i, Sarah Meyohas, Ronald Rael, Alison Saar, Muhannad Shono on view: March 8th — May 11th, 2025 photography: © Lance Gerber | @lance.gerber art connec!ons: +430 !"# POPULAR NOW ART! publish my work promote my project share my vision 12k views ΝΥ photo exhibi!on13k views !c exhibi!ons11k views !ons take over amsterdam's stedelijk and van gogh museums10k views $er show explores self-expression in sparkle10k views Learn more keep up with our daily and weekly stories daily - weekly - enter your email for newsle!er subscribe see sample see sample "i, Five Things You Can’t Wear on TV, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber Muhannad Shono, What Remains, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber 1/5 art 11 design directory courses compe!!ons shop socialize 1home > art > desert X 2025 opens with artworks that speak to california’s vast coachella valley desert X 2025 opens with artworks that speak to california's vast coachella valley 203 shares 11 ARTISTS ARRIVE TO COACHELLA VALLEY FOR DESERT X 2025 Stretching across California’s Coachella Valley, the 2025 edi!on of Desert X transforms the desert into a living conversa!on between art, land, and !me. Through eleven newly commissioned installa!ons, ar!sts from Asia, Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East engage with the desert’s vastness as both subject and collaborator. The artworks confront the weight of history embedded in the landscape while specula!ng on its future, addressing themes of Indigenous futurism, design ac!vism, and the imprint of human interven!on. Some pieces take on solid architectural forms, asser!ng a presence in the shi"ing terrain, while others embrace the ephemeral, using wind, light, and movement to underscore the desert’s constant state of ﬂux. In a region where wilderness and urban expansion collide, these works challenge percep!ons of permanence, invi!ng visitors to reconsider the desert not as an empty expanse but as a layered site of memory, transforma!on, and resistance. The works will be on view across the Coachella Valley from March 8th — May 11th, 2025 Coachella Valley, California | image © Lance Gerber MONUMENTAL ARTWORKS DRAW FROM ANCESTRAL WISDOM From Sanford Biggers’ explora!ons of cultural symbology to Agnes Denes’ medita!ons on ecological stewardship, each installa!on for Desert X 2025 oﬀers a dis!nct lens on the complexi!es of desert life in California. Ronald Rael and Cannupa Hanska Luger draw from Indigenous knowledge to propose alterna!ve ways of engaging with land. Meanwhile, Raphael He"i, Jose Dávila, and Sarah Meyohas examine the shi"ing boundaries between technology and nature. At once specula!ve and deeply rooted, the works on view stretch across !me — drawing from ancestral wisdom while interroga!ng the asymmetries of colonial power and the accelera!ng impact of emerging technologies. In its ﬁ"h itera!on, Desert X con!nues to use the desert as a space of inquiry, where art reﬂects, reframes, and reimagines our rela!onship with the world we inhabit. Jose Dávila’s ‘The act of being together’ explores material density, gravity, and !me through a series of unaltered marble blocks sourced from a quarry just across the U.S.–Mexico border. Inspired by Robert Smithson’s site/nonsite dialec!cs, the ar!st establishes a rela!onship between absence and presence, migra!on, and transforma!on. As the stones traverse both physical and metaphorical borders, they evoke unseen histories and future possibili!es, appearing as if splintered across !me and space. Their casual arrangement suggests archaeological ruins in reverse — simultaneously remnants of the past and markers of an emerging future — invi!ng reﬂec!on on human transience within an expansive and shi"ing landscape. Sarah Meyohas, Truth Arrives in Slanted Beams, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber Sarah Meyohas’ completes ‘Truth Arrives in Slanted Beams’ as an immersive installa!on that merges analog and digital technologies to explore percep!on and light. Situated in the Palm Desert, the ar!st‘s work harnesses ‘caus!cs’ — light pa$erns formed by refrac!on and reﬂec!on — projec!ng sunlight onto a ribbon-like structure cascading across the landscape. Inspired by ancient !mekeeping and 20th-century land art, the installa!on features mirrored panels designed through computer algorithms, each inscribed with the poe!c phrase, ‘truth arrives in slanted beams.’ As visitors adjust the mirrors, they reveal shi"ing projec!ons, illusions, and pa$erns, evoking a mirage-like longing for water in the arid expanse. Ronald Rael, Adobe Oasis, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber ‘Adobe Oasis’ by Ronald Rael is a sculptural demonstra!on of the revival of ancestral building techniques through contemporary technology. Situated in Palm Springs, the installa!on reimagines the poten!al of adobe — an ancient, sustainable material — through an innova!ve 3D-prin!ng process. Drawing inspira!on from Indigenous and earthen construc!on tradi!ons, the ar!st’s corrugated mud structures echo the texture of palm trees, referencing the enduring oases of the Coachella Valley. Set against relics of western expansion and modern real estate, Adobe Oasis presents a compelling alterna!ve to environmentally harmful architecture, emphasizing adobe’s aﬀordability, energy eﬃciency, and resilience. Sanford Biggers, Unsui (Mirror), Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber Sanford Biggers’ ‘Unsui (Mirror)’ is a monumental sequin-covered sculpture at the James O. Jessie Desert Highland Unity Center in Palm Springs. Towering over thirty feet, the shimmering cloud forms draw from Buddhist concepts of unsui (‘clouds and water’ in Japanese), symbolizing movement, transforma!on, and interconnec!on. Reﬂec!ng sunlight and shi"ing with the wind, the sculptures evoke both the ephemeral and the eternal, mirroring the interplay between natural forces and cultural narra!ves. Rooted in the ar!st’s broader prac!ce of remixing historical symbols, the work also acknowledges the history of the surrounding Black community, which was formed a"er the displacement of residents from Sec!on 14 in the 1960s. In this context, Unsui (Mirror) stands as both a medita!on on freedom and a symbol of resilience. Alison Saar, Soul Service Sta!on, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber Alison Saar’s ‘Soul Service Sta!on’ is a desert res!ng place that oﬀers spiritual replenishment in the form of art, poetry, and communal engagement. Inspired by the gas sta!ons of the American West, the ar!st’s sta!on brings healing and renewal. At its heart stands a hand-carved female guardian, symbolizing strength and protec!on. Inside, an assemblage of devo!onal objects and furnishings cra"ed from salvaged materials merge Saar’s transforma!ve prac!ce with community collabora!on, including foil repoussé medallions created by Coachella Valley students. A repurposed gas pump plays poetry by Harrye$e Mullen, further enriching the experience. Rooted in Saar’s explora!on of cultural memory, Black female iden!ty, and spiritual tradi!ons, Soul Service Sta!on is a refuge for weary travelers, invi!ng them to pause, reﬂect, and recharge. Swiss ar!st Raphael He"i’s ‘Five Things You Can’t Wear on TV’ is a site-speciﬁc installa!on in Palm Desert that explores percep!on and immateriality through industrial materials. Inspired by his Alpine upbringing and later encounters with the desert’s vast horizontality, He"i employs a black woven polymer ﬁber — originally designed for ﬁre hoses — coated with a reﬂec!ve ﬁnish. Suspended in tension between two distant points, the material forms an ar!ﬁcial horizon, oscilla!ng in the wind like a vibra!ng guitar string. This kine!c movement distorts spa!al percep!on, mirroring the ephemeral nature of desert mirages where hard lines blur and reform. The piece transforms environmental forces — wind, light, and atmospheric shi"s — into an evolving visual phenomenon, invi!ng viewers to engage with the poe!c interplay of distance, proximity, and percep!on. Agnes Denes, The Living Pyramid, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber ‘The Living Pyramid’ by Hungarian ar!st Agnes Denes is a monumental sculptural and environmental interven!on at Sunnylands Center & Gardens, created for Desert X 2025. Integra!ng Denes’ long-standing explora!on of pyramidal forms with her commitment to public landworks, the piece reﬂects both mathema!cal precision and organic transforma!on. Planted with na!ve vegeta!on, its structure evolves over six months as plants sprout, bloom, seed, and decay, embodying the dynamic interplay between nature and civiliza!on. Echoing Sunnylands’ role as a diploma!c hub, the pyramid serves as a living metaphor for societal growth and imperfec!on. Ac!vated through educa!onal programs, it creates environmental awareness and collec!ve stewardship, transforming beyond form into a social construct of care and engagement. Cannupa Hanska Luger, G.H.O.S.T. Ride, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber ‘G.H.O.S.T. Ride’ by Cannupa Hanska Luger is a mobile, nomadic installa!on that expands his Future Ancestral Technologies (FAT) series, envisioning sustainable, land-based futures through specula!ve ﬁc!on. Reimagining his Repurposed Archaic Technology vehicle (RAT Rod), the ar!st transforms it into a reﬂec!ve, camouﬂaged structure traversing the Coachella Valley, merging with the landscape while serving as both a mirror and an extension of the environment. Constructed from industrial detritus, ceramics, and a !pi, the vehicle integrates specula!ve water and light-gathering systems, imagining an adap!ve, resilient future. Visitors may encounter its !me-traveling occupants — a family from an undeﬁned future — promp!ng reﬂec!ons on survival, Indigenous knowledge, and the rela!onship between humanity and the land. Rooted in the ethos of Future Ancestral Technologies, G.H.O.S.T. Ride challenges colonial narra!ves of extrac!on, urging us to learn from the desert’s deep-!me wisdom and reconsider coexistence beyond human-centered infrastructure. Muhannad Shono’s ‘What Remains’ is a site-speciﬁc installa!on for Desert X that explores the ﬂuid nature of iden!ty and land. Using long strips of fabric infused with na!ve sand, the ar!st harnesses the desert wind as an ac!ve force, allowing the material to shi" and tangle like dunes in mo!on. The work challenges no!ons of permanence, as the wind disrupts and reshapes the fabric, crea!ng a landscape in constant ﬂux. Suspended between gravity and movement, What Remains becomes a living relic — an ephemeral memory of place, displacement, and transforma!on. project info: event: Desert X | @_desertx loca!on: Coachella Valley, California ar!sts: Sanford Biggers, Jose Dávila, Agnes Denes, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Raphael He"i, Sarah Meyohas, Ronald Rael, Alison Saar, Muhannad Shono on view: March 8th — May 11th, 2025 photography: © Lance Gerber | @lance.gerber art connec!ons: +430 !"# POPULAR NOW ART! publish my work promote my project share my vision 12k views ΝΥ photo exhibi!on13k views !c exhibi!ons11k views !ons take over amsterdam's stedelijk and van gogh museums10k views $er show explores self-expression in sparkle10k views Learn more keep up with our daily and weekly stories daily - weekly - enter your email for newsle!er subscribe see sample see sample Raphael He"i, Five Things You Can’t Wear on TV, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber Muhannad Shono, What Remains, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber 1/5 art 11 design directory courses compe!!ons shop socialize 1 home > art > desert X 2025 opens with artworks that speak to california’s vast coachella valleydesert X 2025 opens with artworks that speak to california's vast coachella valley203 shares11 ARTISTS ARRIVE TO COACHELLA VALLEY FOR DESERT X 2025 Stretching across California’s Coachella Valley, the 2025 edi!on of Desert X transforms the desert into a livingconversa!on between art, land, and !me. Through eleven newly commissioned installa!ons, ar!sts from Asia,Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East engage with the desert’s vastness as both subject and collaborator. Theartworks confront the weight of history embedded in the landscape while specula!ng on its future, addressingthemes of Indigenous futurism, design ac!vism, and the imprint of human interven!on. Some pieces take on solid architectural forms, asser!ng a presence in the shi"ing terrain, while others embrace theephemeral, using wind, light, and movement to underscore the desert’s constant state of ﬂux. In a region wherewilderness and urban expansion collide, these works challenge percep!ons of permanence, invi!ng visitors toreconsider the desert not as an empty expanse but as a layered site of memory, transforma!on, and resistance. Theworks will be on view across the Coachella Valley from March 8th — May 11th, 2025Coachella Valley, California | image © Lance Gerber MONUMENTAL ARTWORKS DRAW FROM ANCESTRAL WISDOM From Sanford Biggers’ explora!ons of cultural symbology to Agnes Denes’ medita!ons on ecological stewardship, each installa!on for Desert X 2025 oﬀers a dis!nct lens on the complexi!es of desert life in California. Ronald Rael and Cannupa Hanska Luger draw from Indigenous knowledge to propose alterna!ve ways of engaging with land. Meanwhile, Raphael He"i, Jose Dávila, and Sarah Meyohas examine the shi"ing boundaries between technology and nature. At once specula!ve and deeply rooted, the works on view stretch across !me — drawing from ancestral wisdom while interroga!ng the asymmetries of colonial power and the accelera!ng impact of emerging technologies. In its ﬁ"h itera!on, Desert X con!nues to use the desert as a space of inquiry, where art reﬂects, reframes, and reimagines our rela!onship with the world we inhabit. Jose Dávila, The act of being together, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber Jose Dávila’s ‘The act of being together’ explores material density, gravity, and !me through a series of unaltered marble blocks sourced from a quarry just across the U.S.–Mexico border. Inspired by Robert Smithson’s site/nonsite dialec!cs, the ar!st establishes a rela!onship between absence and presence, migra!on, and transforma!on. As the stones traverse both physical and metaphorical borders, they evoke unseen histories and future possibili!es, appearing as if splintered across !me and space. Their casual arrangement suggests archaeological ruins in reverse — simultaneously remnants of the past and markers of an emerging future — invi!ng reﬂec!on on human transience within an expansive and shi"ing landscape. Sarah Meyohas’ completes ‘Truth Arrives in Slanted Beams’ as an immersive installa!on that merges analog and digital technologies to explore percep!on and light. Situated in the Palm Desert, the ar!st‘s work harnesses ‘caus!cs’ — light pa$erns formed by refrac!on and reﬂec!on — projec!ng sunlight onto a ribbon-like structure cascading across the landscape. Inspired by ancient !mekeeping and 20th-century land art, the installa!on features mirrored panels designed through computer algorithms, each inscribed with the poe!c phrase, ‘truth arrives in slanted beams.’ As visitors adjust the mirrors, they reveal shi"ing projec!ons, illusions, and pa$erns, evoking a mirage-like longing for water in the arid expanse. Ronald Rael, Adobe Oasis, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber ‘Adobe Oasis’ by Ronald Rael is a sculptural demonstra!on of the revival of ancestral building techniques through contemporary technology. Situated in Palm Springs, the installa!on reimagines the poten!al of adobe — an ancient, sustainable material — through an innova!ve 3D-prin!ng process. Drawing inspira!on from Indigenous and earthen construc!on tradi!ons, the ar!st’s corrugated mud structures echo the texture of palm trees, referencing the enduring oases of the Coachella Valley. Set against relics of western expansion and modern real estate, Adobe Oasis presents a compelling alterna!ve to environmentally harmful architecture, emphasizing adobe’s aﬀordability, energy eﬃciency, and resilience. Sanford Biggers, Unsui (Mirror), Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber Sanford Biggers’ ‘Unsui (Mirror)’ is a monumental sequin-covered sculpture at the James O. Jessie Desert Highland Unity Center in Palm Springs. Towering over thirty feet, the shimmering cloud forms draw from Buddhist concepts of unsui (‘clouds and water’ in Japanese), symbolizing movement, transforma!on, and interconnec!on. Reﬂec!ng sunlight and shi"ing with the wind, the sculptures evoke both the ephemeral and the eternal, mirroring the interplay between natural forces and cultural narra!ves. Rooted in the ar!st’s broader prac!ce of remixing historical symbols, the work also acknowledges the history of the surrounding Black community, which was formed a"er the displacement of residents from Sec!on 14 in the 1960s. In this context, Unsui (Mirror) stands as both a medita!on on freedom and a symbol of resilience. Alison Saar, Soul Service Sta!on, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber Alison Saar’s ‘Soul Service Sta!on’ is a desert res!ng place that oﬀers spiritual replenishment in the form of art, poetry, and communal engagement. Inspired by the gas sta!ons of the American West, the ar!st’s sta!on brings healing and renewal. At its heart stands a hand-carved female guardian, symbolizing strength and protec!on. Inside, an assemblage of devo!onal objects and furnishings cra"ed from salvaged materials merge Saar’s transforma!ve prac!ce with community collabora!on, including foil repoussé medallions created by Coachella Valley students. A repurposed gas pump plays poetry by Harrye$e Mullen, further enriching the experience. Rooted in Saar’s explora!on of cultural memory, Black female iden!ty, and spiritual tradi!ons, Soul Service Sta!on is a refuge for weary travelers, invi!ng them to pause, reﬂect, and recharge. Swiss ar!st Raphael He"i’s ‘Five Things You Can’t Wear on TV’ is a site-speciﬁc installa!on in Palm Desert that explores percep!on and immateriality through industrial materials. Inspired by his Alpine upbringing and later encounters with the desert’s vast horizontality, He"i employs a black woven polymer ﬁber — originally designed for ﬁre hoses — coated with a reﬂec!ve ﬁnish. Suspended in tension between two distant points, the material forms an ar!ﬁcial horizon, oscilla!ng in the wind like a vibra!ng guitar string. This kine!c movement distorts spa!al percep!on, mirroring the ephemeral nature of desert mirages where hard lines blur and reform. The piece transforms environmental forces — wind, light, and atmospheric shi"s — into an evolving visual phenomenon, invi!ng viewers to engage with the poe!c interplay of distance, proximity, and percep!on. Agnes Denes, The Living Pyramid, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber ‘The Living Pyramid’ by Hungarian ar!st Agnes Denes is a monumental sculptural and environmental interven!on at Sunnylands Center & Gardens, created for Desert X 2025. Integra!ng Denes’ long-standing explora!on of pyramidal forms with her commitment to public landworks, the piece reﬂects both mathema!cal precision and organic transforma!on. Planted with na!ve vegeta!on, its structure evolves over six months as plants sprout, bloom, seed, and decay, embodying the dynamic interplay between nature and civiliza!on. Echoing Sunnylands’ role as a diploma!c hub, the pyramid serves as a living metaphor for societal growth and imperfec!on. Ac!vated through educa!onal programs, it creates environmental awareness and collec!ve stewardship, transforming beyond form into a social construct of care and engagement. Cannupa Hanska Luger, G.H.O.S.T. Ride, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber ‘G.H.O.S.T. Ride’ by Cannupa Hanska Luger is a mobile, nomadic installa!on that expands his Future Ancestral Technologies (FAT) series, envisioning sustainable, land-based futures through specula!ve ﬁc!on. Reimagining his Repurposed Archaic Technology vehicle (RAT Rod), the ar!st transforms it into a reﬂec!ve, camouﬂaged structure traversing the Coachella Valley, merging with the landscape while serving as both a mirror and an extension of the environment. Constructed from industrial detritus, ceramics, and a !pi, the vehicle integrates specula!ve water and light-gathering systems, imagining an adap!ve, resilient future. Visitors may encounter its !me-traveling occupants — a family from an undeﬁned future — promp!ng reﬂec!ons on survival, Indigenous knowledge, and the rela!onship between humanity and the land. Rooted in the ethos of Future Ancestral Technologies, G.H.O.S.T. Ride challenges colonial narra!ves of extrac!on, urging us to learn from the desert’s deep-!me wisdom and reconsider coexistence beyond human-centered infrastructure. Muhannad Shono’s ‘What Remains’ is a site-speciﬁc installa!on for Desert X that explores the ﬂuid nature of iden!ty and land. Using long strips of fabric infused with na!ve sand, the ar!st harnesses the desert wind as an ac!ve force, allowing the material to shi" and tangle like dunes in mo!on. The work challenges no!ons of permanence, as the wind disrupts and reshapes the fabric, crea!ng a landscape in constant ﬂux. Suspended between gravity and movement, What Remains becomes a living relic — an ephemeral memory of place, displacement, and transforma!on. project info: event: Desert X | @_desertx loca!on: Coachella Valley, California ar!sts: Sanford Biggers, Jose Dávila, Agnes Denes, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Raphael He"i, Sarah Meyohas, Ronald Rael, Alison Saar, Muhannad Shono on view: March 8th — May 11th, 2025 photography: © Lance Gerber | @lance.gerber art connec!ons: +430!"# POPULAR NOW ART! publish my work promote my project share my vision 12k views ΝΥ photo exhibi!on13k views !c exhibi!ons11k views !ons take over amsterdam's stedelijk and van gogh museums10k views $er show explores self-expression in sparkle10k views Learn more keep up with our daily andweekly stories daily - weekly - enter your email for newsle!er subscribe see sample see sample Raphael He"i, Five Things You Can’t Wear on TV, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber Muhannad Shono, What Remains, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber 1/5 art 11 design directory courses compe!!ons shop socialize 1home > art > desert X 2025 opens with artworks that speak to california’s vast coachella valleydesert X 2025 opens with artworks that speak to california's vast coachella valley203 shares11 ARTISTS ARRIVE TO COACHELLA VALLEY FOR DESERT X 2025 Stretching across California’s Coachella Valley, the 2025 edi!on of Desert X transforms the desert into a livingconversa!on between art, land, and !me. Through eleven newly commissioned installa!ons, ar!sts from Asia,Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East engage with the desert’s vastness as both subject and collaborator. Theartworks confront the weight of history embedded in the landscape while specula!ng on its future, addressingthemes of Indigenous futurism, design ac!vism, and the imprint of human interven!on. Some pieces take on solid architectural forms, asser!ng a presence in the shi"ing terrain, while others embrace theephemeral, using wind, light, and movement to underscore the desert’s constant state of ﬂux. In a region wherewilderness and urban expansion collide, these works challenge percep!ons of permanence, invi!ng visitors toreconsider the desert not as an empty expanse but as a layered site of memory, transforma!on, and resistance. Theworks will be on view across the Coachella Valley from March 8th — May 11th, 2025Coachella Valley, California | image © Lance Gerber MONUMENTAL ARTWORKS DRAW FROM ANCESTRAL WISDOM From Sanford Biggers’ explora!ons of cultural symbology to Agnes Denes’ medita!ons on ecological stewardship,each installa!on for Desert X 2025 oﬀers a dis!nct lens on the complexi!es of desert life in California. Ronald Raeland Cannupa Hanska Luger draw from Indigenous knowledge to propose alterna!ve ways of engaging with land.Meanwhile, Raphael He"i, Jose Dávila, and Sarah Meyohas examine the shi"ing boundaries between technology andnature. At once specula!ve and deeply rooted, the works on view stretch across !me — drawing from ancestral wisdomwhile interroga!ng the asymmetries of colonial power and the accelera!ng impact of emerging technologies. In itsﬁ"h itera!on, Desert X con!nues to use the desert as a space of inquiry, where art reﬂects, reframes, and reimaginesour rela!onship with the world we inhabit.Jose Dávila, The act of being together, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber Jose Dávila’s ‘The act of being together’ explores material density, gravity, and !me through a series of unalteredmarble blocks sourced from a quarry just across the U.S.–Mexico border. Inspired by Robert Smithson’s site/nonsitedialec!cs, the ar!st establishes a rela!onship between absence and presence, migra!on, and transforma!on. As the stones traverse both physical and metaphorical borders, they evoke unseen histories and future possibili!es,appearing as if splintered across !me and space. Their casual arrangement suggests archaeological ruins in reverse —simultaneously remnants of the past and markers of an emerging future — invi!ng reﬂec!on on human transiencewithin an expansive and shi"ing landscape.Sarah Meyohas, Truth Arrives in Slanted Beams, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber Sarah Meyohas’ completes ‘Truth Arrives in Slanted Beams’ as an immersive installa!on that merges analog anddigital technologies to explore percep!on and light. Situated in the Palm Desert, the ar!st‘s work harnesses ‘caus!cs’— light pa$erns formed by refrac!on and reﬂec!on — projec!ng sunlight onto a ribbon-like structure cascadingacross the landscape. Inspired by ancient !mekeeping and 20th-century land art, the installa!on features mirrored panels designedthrough computer algorithms, each inscribed with the poe!c phrase, ‘truth arrives in slanted beams.’ As visitorsadjust the mirrors, they reveal shi"ing projec!ons, illusions, and pa$erns, evoking a mirage-like longing for water inthe arid expanse.Ronald Rael, Adobe Oasis, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber ‘Adobe Oasis’ by Ronald Rael is a sculptural demonstra!on of the revival of ancestral building techniques throughcontemporary technology. Situated in Palm Springs, the installa!on reimagines the poten!al of adobe — an ancient,sustainable material — through an innova!ve 3D-prin!ng process. Drawing inspira!on from Indigenous and earthen construc!on tradi!ons, the ar!st’s corrugated mud structuresecho the texture of palm trees, referencing the enduring oases of the Coachella Valley. Set against relics of westernexpansion and modern real estate, Adobe Oasis presents a compelling alterna!ve to environmentally harmfularchitecture, emphasizing adobe’s aﬀordability, energy eﬃciency, and resilience. Sanford Biggers, Unsui (Mirror), Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber Sanford Biggers’ ‘Unsui (Mirror)’ is a monumental sequin-covered sculpture at the James O. Jessie Desert HighlandUnity Center in Palm Springs. Towering over thirty feet, the shimmering cloud forms draw from Buddhist concepts ofunsui (‘clouds and water’ in Japanese), symbolizing movement, transforma!on, and interconnec!on. Reﬂec!ng sunlight and shi"ing with the wind, the sculptures evoke both the ephemeral and the eternal, mirroringthe interplay between natural forces and cultural narra!ves. Rooted in the ar!st’s broader prac!ce of remixinghistorical symbols, the work also acknowledges the history of the surrounding Black community, which was formeda"er the displacement of residents from Sec!on 14 in the 1960s. In this context, Unsui (Mirror) stands as both amedita!on on freedom and a symbol of resilience.Alison Saar, Soul Service Sta!on, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber Alison Saar’s ‘Soul Service Sta!on’ is a desert res!ng place that oﬀers spiritual replenishment in the form of art,poetry, and communal engagement. Inspired by the gas sta!ons of the American West, the ar!st’s sta!on bringshealing and renewal. At its heart stands a hand-carved female guardian, symbolizing strength and protec!on. Inside, an assemblage of devo!onal objects and furnishings cra"ed from salvaged materials merge Saar’stransforma!ve prac!ce with community collabora!on, including foil repoussé medallions created by Coachella Valleystudents. A repurposed gas pump plays poetry by Harrye$e Mullen, further enriching the experience. Rooted inSaar’s explora!on of cultural memory, Black female iden!ty, and spiritual tradi!ons, Soul Service Sta!on is a refugefor weary travelers, invi!ng them to pause, reﬂect, and recharge. Swiss ar!st Raphael He"i’s ‘Five Things You Can’t Wear on TV’ is a site-speciﬁc installa!on in Palm Desert thatexplores percep!on and immateriality through industrial materials. Inspired by his Alpine upbringing and laterencounters with the desert’s vast horizontality, He"i employs a black woven polymer ﬁber — originally designed forﬁre hoses — coated with a reﬂec!ve ﬁnish. Suspended in tension between two distant points, the material forms an ar!ﬁcial horizon, oscilla!ng in the wind likea vibra!ng guitar string. This kine!c movement distorts spa!al percep!on, mirroring the ephemeral nature of desertmirages where hard lines blur and reform. The piece transforms environmental forces — wind, light, and atmosphericshi"s — into an evolving visual phenomenon, invi!ng viewers to engage with the poe!c interplay of distance,proximity, and percep!on.Agnes Denes, The Living Pyramid, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber ‘The Living Pyramid’ by Hungarian ar!st Agnes Denes is a monumental sculptural and environmental interven!on atSunnylands Center & Gardens, created for Desert X 2025. Integra!ng Denes’ long-standing explora!on of pyramidalforms with her commitment to public landworks, the piece reﬂects both mathema!cal precision and organictransforma!on. Planted with na!ve vegeta!on, its structure evolves over six months as plants sprout, bloom, seed, and decay,embodying the dynamic interplay between nature and civiliza!on. Echoing Sunnylands’ role as a diploma!c hub, thepyramid serves as a living metaphor for societal growth and imperfec!on. Ac!vated through educa!onal programs, itcreates environmental awareness and collec!ve stewardship, transforming beyond form into a social construct ofcare and engagement.Cannupa Hanska Luger, G.H.O.S.T. Ride, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber ‘G.H.O.S.T. Ride’ by Cannupa Hanska Luger is a mobile, nomadic installa!on that expands his Future AncestralTechnologies (FAT) series, envisioning sustainable, land-based futures through specula!ve ﬁc!on. Reimagining hisRepurposed Archaic Technology vehicle (RAT Rod), the ar!st transforms it into a reﬂec!ve, camouﬂaged structuretraversing the Coachella Valley, merging with the landscape while serving as both a mirror and an extension of theenvironment. Constructed from industrial detritus, ceramics, and a !pi, the vehicle integrates specula!ve water and light-gatheringsystems, imagining an adap!ve, resilient future. Visitors may encounter its !me-traveling occupants — a family froman undeﬁned future — promp!ng reﬂec!ons on survival, Indigenous knowledge, and the rela!onship betweenhumanity and the land. Rooted in the ethos of Future Ancestral Technologies, G.H.O.S.T. Ride challenges colonialnarra!ves of extrac!on, urging us to learn from the desert’s deep-!me wisdom and reconsider coexistence beyondhuman-centered infrastructure. Muhannad Shono’s ‘What Remains’ is a site-speciﬁc installa!on for Desert X that explores the ﬂuid nature of iden!ty and land. Using long strips of fabric infused with na!ve sand, the ar!st harnesses the desert wind as an ac!ve force, allowing the material to shi" and tangle like dunes in mo!on. The work challenges no!ons of permanence, as the wind disrupts and reshapes the fabric, crea!ng a landscape in constant ﬂux. Suspended between gravity and movement, What Remains becomes a living relic — an ephemeral memory of place, displacement, and transforma!on. project info: event: Desert X | @_desertx loca!on: Coachella Valley, California ar!sts: Sanford Biggers, Jose Dávila, Agnes Denes, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Raphael He"i, Sarah Meyohas, Ronald Rael, Alison Saar, Muhannad Shono on view: March 8th — May 11th, 2025 photography: © Lance Gerber | @lance.gerber !ons: +430!"#POPULAR NOW ART!publish my work promote my project share my vision12k viewsΝΥphoto exhibi!on13k views!cexhibi!ons11k views!ons take overamsterdam's stedelijkand van goghmuseums10k views$er show exploresself-expression insparkle10k viewsLearn morekeep up with our daily andweekly storiesdaily - weekly - enter your email for newsle!ersubscribesee samplesee sampleRaphael He"i, Five Things You Can’t Wear on TV, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber Muhannad Shono, What Remains, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber 1/5 art 11 design directory courses compe!!ons shop socialize 1 105 TRENDING Milan Design Week guide David Hockney in Paris Ikea leans into luxury Wallpaper* Design Awards 2025 Subscribe Home Architecture Design & Interiors Art & Culture Watches & Jewellery Fashion & Beauty Technology Transportation Travel Entertaining Sign up to our newsletter Advertisement Will Jennings Will Jennings is a writer, educator and artist based in London and is a regular contributor to Wallpaper*. Will is interested in how arts and architectures intersect and is editor of online arts and architecture writing platform recessed.space and director of the charity Hypha Studios, as well as a member of the Association of International Art Critics. Recommended:Next Article ‘David Hockney 25’: inside the artist’s blockbusterParis show ‘David Hockney 25’ has opened at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. Wallpaper’s HannahSilver took a tour of the colossal, colourful show When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an afﬁliate commission. Here’s how it works. ART AND CULTURE EXHIBITIONS & SHOWSDesert X 2025 review: a new American dream grows inthe Coachella Valley Will Jennings reports from the epic California art festival. Here are the highlights Sign up to our newsletter When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an afﬁliate commission. Here’s how it works. Muhannad Shono (Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon) Of all art biennials and recurring festivals, Southern California’s Desert X is one of the largest in physical expanse. Spread across over 480 sq km of Coachella Valley’s diverse landscapes, the only way to navigate it all – perhaps suitably for the US – is by car. A well-designed handy app includes a map to help visitors plot their own route around the 11 site- responsive installations found across desert dunes, rocky valleys, turbine ﬁelds, and formal gardens. With such driving required to tick off all the works, it might be useful to know where to refuel en route – though the map only includes a single, lonely service station across the whole of the artistic terrain. Born in LA, artist Alison Saar understands the importance of gas stations, not only for car culture. Famously documented by Ed Ruscha and Edward Hopper, the traditional petro-macho convention is twisted by Saar with Soul Service Station, an architectural sculpture offering space to recharge the psyche. Inside the building are devotional objects created with local students, speaking to hope and healing, while the pump outside delivers a poem from Harryette Mullen through a conch shell instead of gushing oil. ‘When you think about the desert as being this landscape for opening your mind and letting go of all of those pressures’, Saar said of what she described as a ‘collaboration with the landscape’. Agnes Denes (Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon) By positioning poetics and reﬂection where one may expect the force of oil, Saar presents an alternative connection to land and place rooted in collective connection over extraction, a theme recurring throughout Desert X’s curation from artistic director Neville Wakeﬁeld alongside guest co- curator Kaitlin Garcia-Maestas. With no single overarching theme, there are nonetheless connections to be drawn across the works, each of which collaborates with the landscape and environmental elements in different ways. Sanford Biggers started his career in the LA grafﬁti scene, and his pair of pop-art clouds puncture the sky with a similar comic clinicality, shimmering sequins making the wind visible. With wind turbines spread across the valley ﬂoor and advertising signs lined up along the sides of freeways, Biggers’ vertical interjections are totems of reﬂection inviting meditation and a slowing pace. ’It is an opportunity to meditate and dream,’ Biggers said. Another artist playing with light is Sarah Meyohas, who, born in 1991, is the youngest participant. Her work carries a maturity in form and spatial awareness: a white path leading from the road deep into the desert slowly narrowing and contorting into a sinuous wall that folds back on itself to create arch walls. Visitors can rotate and angle reﬂective discs until the title of the work, Truth Arrives in Slanted Beams, is projected across the white surfaces. Truth, of course, is slippery, and as the sun passes the carefully angled reﬂected words are destined to disappear. Jose Dávila (Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon) The oldest participant in Desert X, born 60 years before Meyohas, is Agnes Denes, who, while long-known for seminal 1982 work Wheatﬁeld – A Confrontation, is ﬁnally receiving global recognition for a wider and deeper artistic output. Here, she also brings a slowness through a pyramid of plants set within the manicured, formal landscapes of Sunnylands estate. Her Living Pyramids have been erected in various locations recently, with the stepped planting of each iteration drawing from the local ecologies. In California, cacti and wildﬂowers reach skywards, alive with insects and bees, celebrating the geometry and order of the shape and surrounding formal gardens, while also allowing space for chaos, nature, and growth. While a towering pyramid and glimmering clouds have a certain iconicism, and the scale of the landscape perhaps invites artists to engage with enlarged scale and aesthetic to contend with the natural awe of the locations, there is a recurring anti-monumentality amongst the artists. Previous editions offered several large-scape interventions, visible from afar, but – perhaps reﬂecting the more delicate time in politics, climate, and culture the US and the world are now in – there seems a more delicate touch to this edition’s works. Ronald Rael (Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon) Raphael Hefti has strung a taut ﬁbre across 300m, coated on one side with a reﬂective ﬁnish, and while the work is vast in scale and engineering, it is subtly inconspicuous in presence. As the line ripples as wind and sun pass, a sharp geometric glimmer cuts across the hillside rocks as if symbolising the geological line marking the Anthropocene. It is ‘a register of the invisible, of the very air around us and the climate,’ the artist says of a work that visitors expecting grandiosity may ﬁnd underwhelming – or even miss entirely dependent upon weather conditions – but again speaks to a light touch with landscape and place. That is not to say that lightness of touch is also light in profundity. Spread across the Thousand Palms desert is Muhannad Shono’s sculpture What Remains. As with Hefti’s work, a casual observer may not notice Shono’s intervention at ﬁrst, or may even perhaps mistake the fabric land art sculpture as litter carried across the openness to get caught on resilient overgrowth – not a demeaning comment, but an idea present in the politics of the work. Interested in ideas of migration, memory and identity, the artist and his team have carefully unrolled lengths of fabric to align with the direction of the wind, burying some parts into the dune, allowing some ends to ﬂail around creosote bushes. Alison Saar (Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon) The work speaks to current US political issues around immigration (and recent enforced emigration) as well as global migratory situations and our relationship to place. ‘I grew up struggling with notions of home,’ Shono says, ‘…here, the earth in this installation is also unable to settle upon itself.’ Over 90 days of Desert X, weather systems and winds will not just change the artwork, but will intrinsically become co-author, mutating, forcing, covering, ripping or revealing the work. This is not art made to be subjected to market forces or the economy of the gallery, but instead it exists as a barometer for the forces of climate and culture beyond itself, and as such also speaks to predicaments of migrants, refugees, and those passing through places the world over. It is a work that may not survive the American landscape. ‘Time is an essential part of this show,’ Neville Wakeﬁeld says, ‘obviously, the work is always changing as is the environment around it, so we implore you to come back and experience it as many times as possible.’ The notion of temporality is present across many of the works: Hefti’s line only works when conditions permit; Denes’ pyramid will grow, ﬂourish, and perhaps, die over the duration of Desert X; and Shono’s fabrics could get blown away, shredded by foliage, or bury within shifting sands. Time also plays into two works not installed by opening weekend – Kimsooja’s architectural experience of light and colour, and Kapwani Kiwanga’s sculptural mediation upon Palm Springs School of modernist architecture, speaking to migration and the Underground Railroad – both of which will reveal themselves to repeat visitors. Sarah Meyohas (Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon) Two of the strongest, most elemental, works involve material extracted from the ground, taking distinct physicalities though both equally present and powerful. Ronald Rael is both architect and artist, his work similarly straddling disciplines. Adobe Oasis is a mud-construction sculpture that fuses historic vernacular with futuristic methodology. Well suited to California, Rael’s zig-zagging sculpture draws from adobe architecture, a mud-wall approach to building that can be seen across the valley, but formed using a dextrous robot arm, speaking to the technological nature of the state. The result has no pretence of the domestic or habitable, instead acting as both provocation and testbed for how we contend with a climactically challenging future. The form of the interlocking, freestanding mud walls, made by mixing earth with water and created over seven weeks, was formulated to test the extremities of the robotic arm that, strata-like, turned mud into sculpture. It still took manpower, to navigate and coral the robot, to train it and collaborate alongside it, and the result stands as a Richard Serra for the age, speaking not to industrial but vernacular processes. Rael nods to the domestic with a shallow rise of timber steps offering the visitor slight vantage over and beyond the sculpture. This, too, is as much experiment as artistic gesture – with many in LA and beyond unable to get insurance to rebuild properties post-ﬁre, the work reminds us that to go forward we need to look back to how we lived over preceding centuries, and that to be progressive might not only mean signing up to techno- solutions, but to do so while aware of the patterns, behaviours, and slow embedded creativity of the past – all we need is earth, water, technology, and empathy. Raphael Hefti (Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon) This is all also present in Cannupa Hanska Luger’s G.H.O.S.T. Ride, a mobile artwork that will move across the valley. The indigenous-futurist industrial-assemblage of a vehicle acts to explore how deeply-rooted knowledge of a land can be fused into technological imaginings towards speculative solutions that don’t only work for us, temporary custodians of place, but for the very place itself. ‘I pulled some of the technological forms of my people and reinvented it onto this vehicle, looking at indigenous technology as a 20,000-year proof of concept,’ says the artist. This ﬁfth edition of Desert X arrives at a precarious time in US politics. Understandably in this climate, the curators don’t lead with the inherent politics within the 11 works, but they are undoubtedly present throughout, even if secreted through the innocence of found materials, gentle gesture, and subtle undertone. This is perhaps all most redolent in Jose Dávila’s stoic sculpture, The act of being together. It’s a henge-like arrangement of roughly hewn stones, their critical mass and elemental solidity emphasised by rotating wind turbines surrounding it in all directions – the lightness of air reinforcing the weight of Dávila’s material. The rocks are marble, usually something carved into sensual statuary or polished into luxurious bathroom tiles, but here left as immense, irregular lumps, the shape they were when extracted from a Mexican quarry. The US-Mexican border is referenced through the migratory act of moving these stones, their newly shaped objectness in Coachella counterpointed by an extractive void in Mexico. They stand proud, glowing in golden-hour light, as if they were meant to be, as if they have accomplished their own idea of the American dream and found their celebrated place. But we know that just as the stones’ existence in the US is the embodiment of an absence in Mexico, the American dream as it has become is similarly rooted in precarity, inequality, and increasing aggression – as if one may only have a dream if another has a nightmare. But this idea of a dream need not be the case, and each of these Desert X artworks, in their own ways – related to each artist’s lines of inquiry, the speciﬁcities of site, and contention of the elements – speaks to how a new American dream may be formed. One festival of sculpture won’t change the world and give all the answers, but viewers can start to think about how to dream – and art can shift from grandiosity and pomp towards a measured, reﬂective and generous understanding of one another and the places we collaborate with to mutually survive. Desert X runs until 11 May 2025 https://desertx.org/ Photographs throughout © Carlo Zambon, www.carlozambon.com TOPICS California USA BY WILL JENNINGS LAST UPDATED 2 WEEKS AGO IN FEATURES Wallpaper* Newsletter Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors SIGN ME UP By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and areaged 16 or over. David Hockney, Play Within a Play Within a Play and Me with a Cigarette, 2025. Acrylic and collage on canvas. Collection of the artist (Image credit: © David Hockney. Photography: © Jonathan Wilkinson) It was in 2020, while isolating in his Normandy house, that David Hockney used the phrase, ‘Do remember, they can’t cancel the spring’, a reminder that sat alongside the drawings of daffodils he was sending to his friends to cheer them up. A similarly resolute, colourful homage to the brilliant relentlessness of life also lies at the heart of Hockney’s largest ever exhibition, at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. More than 400 of his works, created between 1955 and 2025, are featured, bringing together a variety of mediums, from oil and acrylic painting, pencil and charcoal drawings to digital works, including those created on an iPad, and video installations. Inside ‘David Hockney 25’ at Paris’ Fondation Louis Vuitton David Hockney, Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), 1972. Acrylic on canvas. YAGEO Foundation Collection, Taiwan (Image credit: © David Hockney. Photography: © Art Gallery of New South Wales / Jenni Carter) Hockney’s earliest works are included here. Portrait of my Father (1955), created during his youth in Bradford, West Yorkshire, segues into work from the years he spent in London and California. Here, also, are the strikingly simple lines of Hockney’s swimming pools, their bright, ﬂat surfaces stripping the scenes back to a joyful hedonism. The blossoming of his distinctive ﬁgurative style takes shape in portraits, some of friends, some of those close to him as the artist explored his homosexuality. David Hockney, Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy, 1968. Acrylic on canvas. Private collection (Image credit: © David Hockney. Photography: © Fabrice Gibert) It is Hockney’s later career that is the focus throughout, however, with particular attention paid to work created over the last 25 years. Frank Gehry’s 11 galleries at Fondation Louis Vuitton, taking the form of wind- blown glass sails billowing towards the neighbouring Jardin d’Acclimatation, are a light-ﬁlled foil for Hockney’s nature trail, winding its way around the building’s ﬂuid ﬂoor plan. David Hockney, Winter Timber, 2009. Oil on fifteen canvases. LYC Collection (Image credit: © David Hockney. Photography: © Jonathan Wilkinson) Nature blooms in all its glory. Landscapes may have always been present in Hockney’s oeuvre, but here they are omnipresent, a move that can be traced back to the 1990s, when Hockney began to spend more time in Yorkshire, away from his Los Angeles home, eventually returning to settle BY HANNAH SILVER PUBLISHED 8 APRIL 2025 IN FEATURES TRENDING Milan Design Week guide David Hockney in Paris Ikea leans into luxury Wallpaper* Design Awards 2025 Subscribe Home Architecture Design & Interiors Art & Culture Watches & Jewellery Fashion & Beauty Technology Transportation Travel Entertaining Sign up to our newsletter Advertisement Will Jennings Will Jennings is a writer, educator and artist based in London and is a regular contributor to Wallpaper*. Will is interested in how arts and architectures intersect and is editor of online arts and architecture writing platform recessed.space and director of the charity Hypha Studios, as well as a member of the Association of International Art Critics. Recommended:Next Article ‘David Hockney 25’: inside the artist’s blockbusterParis show ‘David Hockney 25’ has opened at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. Wallpaper’s HannahSilver took a tour of the colossal, colourful show When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an afﬁliate commission. Here’s how it works. ART AND CULTURE EXHIBITIONS & SHOWSDesert X 2025 review: a new American dream grows inthe Coachella Valley Will Jennings reports from the epic California art festival. Here are the highlights Sign up to our newsletter When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an afﬁliate commission. Here’s how it works. Muhannad Shono (Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon) Of all art biennials and recurring festivals, Southern California’s Desert X is one of the largest in physical expanse. Spread across over 480 sq km of Coachella Valley’s diverse landscapes, the only way to navigate it all – perhaps suitably for the US – is by car. A well-designed handy app includes a map to help visitors plot their own route around the 11 site- responsive installations found across desert dunes, rocky valleys, turbine ﬁelds, and formal gardens. With such driving required to tick off all the works, it might be useful to know where to refuel en route – though the map only includes a single, lonely service station across the whole of the artistic terrain. Born in LA, artist Alison Saar understands the importance of gas stations, not only for car culture. Famously documented by Ed Ruscha and Edward Hopper, the traditional petro-macho convention is twisted by Saar with Soul Service Station, an architectural sculpture offering space to recharge the psyche. Inside the building are devotional objects created with local students, speaking to hope and healing, while the pump outside delivers a poem from Harryette Mullen through a conch shell instead of gushing oil. ‘When you think about the desert as being this landscape for opening your mind and letting go of all of those pressures’, Saar said of what she described as a ‘collaboration with the landscape’. Agnes Denes (Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon) By positioning poetics and reﬂection where one may expect the force of oil, Saar presents an alternative connection to land and place rooted in collective connection over extraction, a theme recurring throughout Desert X’s curation from artistic director Neville Wakeﬁeld alongside guest co- curator Kaitlin Garcia-Maestas. With no single overarching theme, there are nonetheless connections to be drawn across the works, each of which collaborates with the landscape and environmental elements in different ways. Sanford Biggers started his career in the LA grafﬁti scene, and his pair of pop-art clouds puncture the sky with a similar comic clinicality, shimmering sequins making the wind visible. With wind turbines spread across the valley ﬂoor and advertising signs lined up along the sides of freeways, Biggers’ vertical interjections are totems of reﬂection inviting meditation and a slowing pace. ’It is an opportunity to meditate and dream,’ Biggers said. Another artist playing with light is Sarah Meyohas, who, born in 1991, is the youngest participant. Her work carries a maturity in form and spatial awareness: a white path leading from the road deep into the desert slowly narrowing and contorting into a sinuous wall that folds back on itself to create arch walls. Visitors can rotate and angle reﬂective discs until the title of the work, Truth Arrives in Slanted Beams, is projected across the white surfaces. Truth, of course, is slippery, and as the sun passes the carefully angled reﬂected words are destined to disappear. Jose Dávila (Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon) The oldest participant in Desert X, born 60 years before Meyohas, is Agnes Denes, who, while long-known for seminal 1982 work Wheatﬁeld – A Confrontation, is ﬁnally receiving global recognition for a wider and deeper artistic output. Here, she also brings a slowness through a pyramid of plants set within the manicured, formal landscapes of Sunnylands estate. Her Living Pyramids have been erected in various locations recently, with the stepped planting of each iteration drawing from the local ecologies. In California, cacti and wildﬂowers reach skywards, alive with insects and bees, celebrating the geometry and order of the shape and surrounding formal gardens, while also allowing space for chaos, nature, and growth. While a towering pyramid and glimmering clouds have a certain iconicism, and the scale of the landscape perhaps invites artists to engage with enlarged scale and aesthetic to contend with the natural awe of the locations, there is a recurring anti-monumentality amongst the artists. Previous editions offered several large-scape interventions, visible from afar, but – perhaps reﬂecting the more delicate time in politics, climate, and culture the US and the world are now in – there seems a more delicate touch to this edition’s works. Ronald Rael (Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon) Raphael Hefti has strung a taut ﬁbre across 300m, coated on one side with a reﬂective ﬁnish, and while the work is vast in scale and engineering, it is subtly inconspicuous in presence. As the line ripples as wind and sun pass, a sharp geometric glimmer cuts across the hillside rocks as if symbolising the geological line marking the Anthropocene. It is ‘a register of the invisible, of the very air around us and the climate,’ the artist says of a work that visitors expecting grandiosity may ﬁnd underwhelming – or even miss entirely dependent upon weather conditions – but again speaks to a light touch with landscape and place. That is not to say that lightness of touch is also light in profundity. Spread across the Thousand Palms desert is Muhannad Shono’s sculpture What Remains. As with Hefti’s work, a casual observer may not notice Shono’s intervention at ﬁrst, or may even perhaps mistake the fabric land art sculpture as litter carried across the openness to get caught on resilient overgrowth – not a demeaning comment, but an idea present in the politics of the work. Interested in ideas of migration, memory and identity, the artist and his team have carefully unrolled lengths of fabric to align with the direction of the wind, burying some parts into the dune, allowing some ends to ﬂail around creosote bushes. Alison Saar (Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon) The work speaks to current US political issues around immigration (and recent enforced emigration) as well as global migratory situations and our relationship to place. ‘I grew up struggling with notions of home,’ Shono says, ‘…here, the earth in this installation is also unable to settle upon itself.’ Over 90 days of Desert X, weather systems and winds will not just change the artwork, but will intrinsically become co-author, mutating, forcing, covering, ripping or revealing the work. This is not art made to be subjected to market forces or the economy of the gallery, but instead it exists as a barometer for the forces of climate and culture beyond itself, and as such also speaks to predicaments of migrants, refugees, and those passing through places the world over. It is a work that may not survive the American landscape. ‘Time is an essential part of this show,’ Neville Wakeﬁeld says, ‘obviously, the work is always changing as is the environment around it, so we implore you to come back and experience it as many times as possible.’ The notion of temporality is present across many of the works: Hefti’s line only works when conditions permit; Denes’ pyramid will grow, ﬂourish, and perhaps, die over the duration of Desert X; and Shono’s fabrics could get blown away, shredded by foliage, or bury within shifting sands. Time also plays into two works not installed by opening weekend – Kimsooja’s architectural experience of light and colour, and Kapwani Kiwanga’s sculptural mediation upon Palm Springs School of modernist architecture, speaking to migration and the Underground Railroad – both of which will reveal themselves to repeat visitors. Sarah Meyohas (Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon) Two of the strongest, most elemental, works involve material extracted from the ground, taking distinct physicalities though both equally present and powerful. Ronald Rael is both architect and artist, his work similarly straddling disciplines. Adobe Oasis is a mud-construction sculpture that fuses historic vernacular with futuristic methodology. Well suited to California, Rael’s zig-zagging sculpture draws from adobe architecture, a mud-wall approach to building that can be seen across the valley, but formed using a dextrous robot arm, speaking to the technological nature of the state. The result has no pretence of the domestic or habitable, instead acting as both provocation and testbed for how we contend with a climactically challenging future. The form of the interlocking, freestanding mud walls, made by mixing earth with water and created over seven weeks, was formulated to test the extremities of the robotic arm that, strata-like, turned mud into sculpture. It still took manpower, to navigate and coral the robot, to train it and collaborate alongside it, and the result stands as a Richard Serra for the age, speaking not to industrial but vernacular processes. Rael nods to the domestic with a shallow rise of timber steps offering the visitor slight vantage over and beyond the sculpture. This, too, is as much experiment as artistic gesture – with many in LA and beyond unable to get insurance to rebuild properties post-ﬁre, the work reminds us that to go forward we need to look back to how we lived over preceding centuries, and that to be progressive might not only mean signing up to techno- solutions, but to do so while aware of the patterns, behaviours, and slow embedded creativity of the past – all we need is earth, water, technology, and empathy. Raphael Hefti (Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon) This is all also present in Cannupa Hanska Luger’s G.H.O.S.T. Ride, a mobile artwork that will move across the valley. The indigenous-futurist industrial-assemblage of a vehicle acts to explore how deeply-rooted knowledge of a land can be fused into technological imaginings towards speculative solutions that don’t only work for us, temporary custodians of place, but for the very place itself. ‘I pulled some of the technological forms of my people and reinvented it onto this vehicle, looking at indigenous technology as a 20,000-year proof of concept,’ says the artist. This ﬁfth edition of Desert X arrives at a precarious time in US politics. Understandably in this climate, the curators don’t lead with the inherent politics within the 11 works, but they are undoubtedly present throughout, even if secreted through the innocence of found materials, gentle gesture, and subtle undertone. This is perhaps all most redolent in Jose Dávila’s stoic sculpture, The act of being together. It’s a henge-like arrangement of roughly hewn stones, their critical mass and elemental solidity emphasised by rotating wind turbines surrounding it in all directions – the lightness of air reinforcing the weight of Dávila’s material. The rocks are marble, usually something carved into sensual statuary or polished into luxurious bathroom tiles, but here left as immense, irregular lumps, the shape they were when extracted from a Mexican quarry. The US-Mexican border is referenced through the migratory act of moving these stones, their newly shaped objectness in Coachella counterpointed by an extractive void in Mexico. They stand proud, glowing in golden-hour light, as if they were meant to be, as if they have accomplished their own idea of the American dream and found their celebrated place. But we know that just as the stones’ existence in the US is the embodiment of an absence in Mexico, the American dream as it has become is similarly rooted in precarity, inequality, and increasing aggression – as if one may only have a dream if another has a nightmare. But this idea of a dream need not be the case, and each of these Desert X artworks, in their own ways – related to each artist’s lines of inquiry, the speciﬁcities of site, and contention of the elements – speaks to how a new American dream may be formed. One festival of sculpture won’t change the world and give all the answers, but viewers can start to think about how to dream – and art can shift from grandiosity and pomp towards a measured, reﬂective and generous understanding of one another and the places we collaborate with to mutually survive. Desert X runs until 11 May 2025 https://desertx.org/ Photographs throughout © Carlo Zambon, www.carlozambon.com California USA BY WILL JENNINGS LAST UPDATED 2 WEEKS AGO IN FEATURES Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors SIGN ME UP By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and areaged 16 or over. David Hockney, Play Within a Play Within a Play and Me with a Cigarette, 2025. Acrylic and collage on canvas. Collection of the artist (Image credit: © David Hockney. Photography: © Jonathan Wilkinson) It was in 2020, while isolating in his Normandy house, that David Hockney used the phrase, ‘Do remember, they can’t cancel the spring’, a reminder that sat alongside the drawings of daffodils he was sending to his friends to cheer them up. A similarly resolute, colourful homage to the brilliant relentlessness of life also lies at the heart of Hockney’s largest ever exhibition, at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. More than 400 of his works, created between 1955 and 2025, are featured, bringing together a variety of mediums, from oil and acrylic painting, pencil and charcoal drawings to digital works, including those created on an iPad, and video installations. Inside ‘David Hockney 25’ at Paris’ Fondation Louis Vuitton David Hockney, Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), 1972. Acrylic on canvas. YAGEO Foundation Collection, Taiwan (Image credit: © David Hockney. Photography: © Art Gallery of New South Wales / Jenni Carter) Hockney’s earliest works are included here. Portrait of my Father (1955), created during his youth in Bradford, West Yorkshire, segues into work from the years he spent in London and California. Here, also, are the strikingly simple lines of Hockney’s swimming pools, their bright, ﬂat surfaces stripping the scenes back to a joyful hedonism. The blossoming of his distinctive ﬁgurative style takes shape in portraits, some of friends, some of those close to him as the artist explored his homosexuality. David Hockney, Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy, 1968. Acrylic on canvas. Private collection (Image credit: © David Hockney. Photography: © Fabrice Gibert) It is Hockney’s later career that is the focus throughout, however, with particular attention paid to work created over the last 25 years. Frank Gehry’s 11 galleries at Fondation Louis Vuitton, taking the form of wind- blown glass sails billowing towards the neighbouring Jardin d’Acclimatation, are a light-ﬁlled foil for Hockney’s nature trail, winding its way around the building’s ﬂuid ﬂoor plan. David Hockney, Winter Timber, 2009. Oil on fifteen canvases. LYC Collection (Image credit: © David Hockney. Photography: © Jonathan Wilkinson) Nature blooms in all its glory. Landscapes may have always been present in Hockney’s oeuvre, but here they are omnipresent, a move that can be traced back to the 1990s, when Hockney began to spend more time in Yorkshire, away from his Los Angeles home, eventually returning to settle BY HANNAH SILVER PUBLISHED 8 APRIL 2025 IN FEATURES Milan Design Week guide David Hockney in Paris Ikea leans into luxury Wallpaper* Design Awards 2025 SubscribeHomeArchitectureDesign & Interiors Art & Culture Watches & Jewellery Fashion & Beauty Technology Transportation Travel Entertaining Sign up to our newsletterAdvertisement Will Jennings Will Jennings is a writer, educator and artist based in London and is a regular contributor to Wallpaper*. Will is interested in how arts and architectures intersect and is editor of online arts and architecture writing platform recessed.space and director of the charity Hypha Studios, as well as a member of the Association of International Art Critics. Recommended:Next Article ‘David Hockney 25’: inside the artist’s blockbusterParis show ‘David Hockney 25’ has opened at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. Wallpaper’s HannahSilver took a tour of the colossal, colourful show When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an afﬁliate commission. Here’s how it works. ART AND CULTURE EXHIBITIONS & SHOWSDesert X 2025 review: a new American dream grows inthe Coachella Valley Will Jennings reports from the epic California art festival. Here are the highlights When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an afﬁliate commission. Here’s how it works. Muhannad Shono (Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon) ﬁelds, and formal gardens. With such driving required to tick off all the works, it might be useful to know where to refuel en route – though the map only includes a single, lonely service station across the whole of the artistic terrain. Born in LA, artist Alison Saar understands the importance of gas stations, not only for car culture. Famously documented by Ed Ruscha and Edward Hopper, the traditional petro-macho convention is twisted by Saar with Soul Service Station, an architectural sculpture offering space to recharge the psyche. Inside the building are devotional objects created with local students, speaking to hope and healing, while the pump outside delivers a poem from Harryette Mullen through a conch shell instead of gushing oil. ‘When you think about the desert as being this landscape for opening your mind and letting go of all of those pressures’, Saar said of what she described as a ‘collaboration with the landscape’. Agnes Denes (Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon) By positioning poetics and reﬂection where one may expect the force of oil, Saar presents an alternative connection to land and place rooted in collective connection over extraction, a theme recurring throughout Desert X’s curation from artistic director Neville Wakeﬁeld alongside guest co- curator Kaitlin Garcia-Maestas. With no single overarching theme, there are nonetheless connections to be drawn across the works, each of which collaborates with the landscape and environmental elements in different ways. Sanford Biggers started his career in the LA grafﬁti scene, and his pair of pop-art clouds puncture the sky with a similar comic clinicality, shimmering sequins making the wind visible. With wind turbines spread across the valley ﬂoor and advertising signs lined up along the sides of freeways, Biggers’ vertical interjections are totems of reﬂection inviting meditation and a slowing pace. ’It is an opportunity to meditate and dream,’ Biggers said. Another artist playing with light is Sarah Meyohas, who, born in 1991, is the youngest participant. Her work carries a maturity in form and spatial awareness: a white path leading from the road deep into the desert slowly narrowing and contorting into a sinuous wall that folds back on itself to create arch walls. Visitors can rotate and angle reﬂective discs until the title of the work, Truth Arrives in Slanted Beams, is projected across the white surfaces. Truth, of course, is slippery, and as the sun passes the carefully angled reﬂected words are destined to disappear. Jose Dávila (Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon) The oldest participant in Desert X, born 60 years before Meyohas, is Agnes Denes, who, while long-known for seminal 1982 work Wheatﬁeld – A Confrontation, is ﬁnally receiving global recognition for a wider and deeper artistic output. Here, she also brings a slowness through a pyramid of plants set within the manicured, formal landscapes of Sunnylands estate. Her Living Pyramids have been erected in various locations recently, with the stepped planting of each iteration drawing from the local ecologies. In California, cacti and wildﬂowers reach skywards, alive with insects and bees, celebrating the geometry and order of the shape and surrounding formal gardens, while also allowing space for chaos, nature, and growth. While a towering pyramid and glimmering clouds have a certain iconicism, and the scale of the landscape perhaps invites artists to engage with enlarged scale and aesthetic to contend with the natural awe of the locations, there is a recurring anti-monumentality amongst the artists. Previous editions offered several large-scape interventions, visible from afar, but – perhaps reﬂecting the more delicate time in politics, climate, and culture the US and the world are now in – there seems a more delicate touch to this edition’s works. Ronald Rael (Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon) Raphael Hefti has strung a taut ﬁbre across 300m, coated on one side with a reﬂective ﬁnish, and while the work is vast in scale and engineering, it is subtly inconspicuous in presence. As the line ripples as wind and sun pass, a sharp geometric glimmer cuts across the hillside rocks as if symbolising the geological line marking the Anthropocene. It is ‘a register of the invisible, of the very air around us and the climate,’ the artist says of a work that visitors expecting grandiosity may ﬁnd underwhelming – or even miss entirely dependent upon weather conditions – but again speaks to a light touch with landscape and place. That is not to say that lightness of touch is also light in profundity. Spread across the Thousand Palms desert is Muhannad Shono’s sculpture What Remains. As with Hefti’s work, a casual observer may not notice Shono’s intervention at ﬁrst, or may even perhaps mistake the fabric land art sculpture as litter carried across the openness to get caught on resilient overgrowth – not a demeaning comment, but an idea present in the politics of the work. Interested in ideas of migration, memory and identity, the artist and his team have carefully unrolled lengths of fabric to align with the direction of the wind, burying some parts into the dune, allowing some ends to ﬂail around creosote bushes. Alison Saar (Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon) The work speaks to current US political issues around immigration (and recent enforced emigration) as well as global migratory situations and our relationship to place. ‘I grew up struggling with notions of home,’ Shono says, ‘…here, the earth in this installation is also unable to settle upon itself.’ Over 90 days of Desert X, weather systems and winds will not just change the artwork, but will intrinsically become co-author, mutating, forcing, covering, ripping or revealing the work. This is not art made to be subjected to market forces or the economy of the gallery, but instead it exists as a barometer for the forces of climate and culture beyond itself, and as such also speaks to predicaments of migrants, refugees, and those passing through places the world over. It is a work that may not survive the American landscape. ‘Time is an essential part of this show,’ Neville Wakeﬁeld says, ‘obviously, the work is always changing as is the environment around it, so we implore you to come back and experience it as many times as possible.’ The notion of temporality is present across many of the works: Hefti’s line only works when conditions permit; Denes’ pyramid will grow, ﬂourish, and perhaps, die over the duration of Desert X; and Shono’s fabrics could get blown away, shredded by foliage, or bury within shifting sands. Time also plays into two works not installed by opening weekend – Kimsooja’s architectural experience of light and colour, and Kapwani Kiwanga’s sculptural mediation upon Palm Springs School of modernist architecture, speaking to migration and the Underground Railroad – both of which will reveal themselves to repeat visitors. Sarah Meyohas (Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon) Two of the strongest, most elemental, works involve material extracted from the ground, taking distinct physicalities though both equally present and powerful. Ronald Rael is both architect and artist, his work similarly straddling disciplines. Adobe Oasis is a mud-construction sculpture that fuses historic vernacular with futuristic methodology. Well suited to California, Rael’s zig-zagging sculpture draws from adobe architecture, a mud-wall approach to building that can be seen across the valley, but formed using a dextrous robot arm, speaking to the technological nature of the state. The result has no pretence of the domestic or habitable, instead acting as both provocation and testbed for how we contend with a climactically challenging future. The form of the interlocking, freestanding mud walls, made by mixing earth with water and created over seven weeks, was formulated to test the extremities of the robotic arm that, strata-like, turned mud into sculpture. It still took manpower, to navigate and coral the robot, to train it and collaborate alongside it, and the result stands as a Richard Serra for the age, speaking not to industrial but vernacular processes. Rael nods to the domestic with a shallow rise of timber steps offering the visitor slight vantage over and beyond the sculpture. This, too, is as much experiment as artistic gesture – with many in LA and beyond unable to get insurance to rebuild properties post-ﬁre, the work reminds us that to go forward we need to look back to how we lived over preceding centuries, and that to be progressive might not only mean signing up to techno- solutions, but to do so while aware of the patterns, behaviours, and slow embedded creativity of the past – all we need is earth, water, technology, and empathy. Raphael Hefti (Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon) This is all also present in Cannupa Hanska Luger’s G.H.O.S.T. Ride, a mobile artwork that will move across the valley. The indigenous-futurist industrial-assemblage of a vehicle acts to explore how deeply-rooted knowledge of a land can be fused into technological imaginings towards speculative solutions that don’t only work for us, temporary custodians of place, but for the very place itself. ‘I pulled some of the technological forms of my people and reinvented it onto this vehicle, looking at indigenous technology as a 20,000-year proof of concept,’ says the artist. This ﬁfth edition of Desert X arrives at a precarious time in US politics. Understandably in this climate, the curators don’t lead with the inherent politics within the 11 works, but they are undoubtedly present throughout, even if secreted through the innocence of found materials, gentle gesture, and subtle undertone. This is perhaps all most redolent in Jose Dávila’s stoic sculpture, The act of being together. It’s a henge-like arrangement of roughly hewn stones, their critical mass and elemental solidity emphasised by rotating wind turbines surrounding it in all directions – the lightness of air reinforcing the weight of Dávila’s material. The rocks are marble, usually something carved into sensual statuary or polished into luxurious bathroom tiles, but here left as immense, irregular lumps, the shape they were when extracted from a Mexican quarry. The US-Mexican border is referenced through the migratory act of moving these stones, their newly shaped objectness in Coachella counterpointed by an extractive void in Mexico. They stand proud, glowing in golden-hour light, as if they were meant to be, as if they have accomplished their own idea of the American dream and found their celebrated place. But we know that just as the stones’ existence in the US is the embodiment of an absence in Mexico, the American dream as it has become is similarly rooted in precarity, inequality, and increasing aggression – as if one may only have a dream if another has a nightmare. But this idea of a dream need not be the case, and each of these Desert X artworks, in their own ways – related to each artist’s lines of inquiry, the speciﬁcities of site, and contention of the elements – speaks to how a new American dream may be formed. One festival of sculpture won’t change the world and give all the answers, but viewers can start to think about how to dream – and art can shift from grandiosity and pomp towards a measured, reﬂective and generous understanding of one another and the places we collaborate with to mutually survive. Desert X runs until 11 May 2025 https://desertx.org/ Photographs throughout © Carlo Zambon, www.carlozambon.com TOPICS California USA BY WILL JENNINGS LAST UPDATED 2 WEEKS AGO IN FEATURES Wallpaper* Newsletter Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors SIGN ME UP By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and areaged 16 or over. David Hockney, Play Within a Play Within a Play and Me with a Cigarette, 2025. Acrylic and collage on canvas. Collection of the artist (Image credit: © David Hockney. Photography: © Jonathan Wilkinson) Inside ‘David Hockney 25’ at Paris’ Fondation Louis Vuitton David Hockney, Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), 1972. Acrylic on canvas. YAGEO Foundation Collection, Taiwan (Image credit: © David Hockney. Photography: © Art Gallery of New South Wales / Jenni Carter) Hockney’s earliest works are included here. Portrait of my Father (1955), created during his youth in Bradford, West Yorkshire, segues into work from the years he spent in London and California. Here, also, are the strikingly simple lines of Hockney’s swimming pools, their bright, ﬂat surfaces stripping the scenes back to a joyful hedonism. The blossoming of his distinctive ﬁgurative style takes shape in portraits, some of friends, some of those close to him as the artist explored his homosexuality. David Hockney, Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy, 1968. Acrylic on canvas. Private collection (Image credit: © David Hockney. Photography: © Fabrice Gibert) It is Hockney’s later career that is the focus throughout, however, with particular attention paid to work created over the last 25 years. Frank Gehry’s 11 galleries at Fondation Louis Vuitton, taking the form of wind- blown glass sails billowing towards the neighbouring Jardin d’Acclimatation, are a light-ﬁlled foil for Hockney’s nature trail, winding its way around the building’s ﬂuid ﬂoor plan. David Hockney, Winter Timber, 2009. Oil on fifteen canvases. LYC Collection (Image credit: © David Hockney. Photography: © Jonathan Wilkinson) Nature blooms in all its glory. Landscapes may have always been present in Hockney’s oeuvre, but here they are omnipresent, a move that can be traced back to the 1990s, when Hockney began to spend more time in Yorkshire, away from his Los Angeles home, eventually returning to settle BY HANNAH SILVER PUBLISHED 8 APRIL 2025 IN FEATURES TRENDING SubscribeHomeArchitectureDesign & Interiors Art & Culture Watches & Jewellery Fashion & Beauty Technology Transportation Travel Entertaining Sign up to our newsletterAdvertisement Will Jennings Will Jennings is a writer, educator and artist based in London and is a regular contributor to Wallpaper*. Will is interested in how arts and architectures intersect and is editor of online arts and architecture writing platform recessed.space and director of the charity Hypha Studios, as well as a member of the Association of International Art Critics. Recommended:Next Article ‘David Hockney 25’: inside the artist’s blockbusterParis show ‘David Hockney 25’ has opened at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. Wallpaper’s HannahSilver took a tour of the colossal, colourful show When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an afﬁliate commission. Here’s how it works. ART AND CULTURE EXHIBITIONS & SHOWSDesert X 2025 review: a new American dream grows inthe Coachella ValleyWill Jennings reports from the epic California art festival. Here are the highlights Sign up to our newsletterWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an afﬁliate commission. Here’s how it works.Muhannad Shono(Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon)ﬁelds, and formal gardens. With such driving required to tick off all theworks, it might be useful to know where to refuel en route – though themap only includes a single, lonely service station across the whole of theartistic terrain.Born in LA, artist Alison Saar understands the importance of gas stations,not only for car culture. Famously documented by Ed Ruscha and EdwardHopper, the traditional petro-macho convention is twisted by Saar withSoul Service Station, an architectural sculpture offering space to recharge thepsyche. Inside the building are devotional objects created with localstudents, speaking to hope and healing, while the pump outside delivers apoem from Harryette Mullen through a conch shell instead of gushing oil.‘When you think about the desert as being this landscape for opening yourmind and letting go of all of those pressures’, Saar said of what shedescribed as a ‘collaboration with the landscape’.Agnes Denes(Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon)By positioning poetics and reﬂection where one may expect the force of oil,Saar presents an alternative connection to land and place rooted incollective connection over extraction, a theme recurring throughout DesertX’s curation from artistic director Neville Wakeﬁeld alongside guest co-curator Kaitlin Garcia-Maestas. With no single overarching theme, thereare nonetheless connections to be drawn across the works, each of whichcollaborates with the landscape and environmental elements in differentways.Sanford Biggers started his career in the LA grafﬁti scene, and his pair ofpop-art clouds puncture the sky with a similar comic clinicality,shimmering sequins making the wind visible. With wind turbines spreadacross the valley ﬂoor and advertising signs lined up along the sides of freeways, Biggers’ vertical interjections are totems of reﬂection inviting meditation and a slowing pace. ’It is an opportunity to meditate and dream,’ Biggers said. Another artist playing with light is Sarah Meyohas, who, born in 1991, is the youngest participant. Her work carries a maturity in form and spatial awareness: a white path leading from the road deep into the desert slowly narrowing and contorting into a sinuous wall that folds back on itself to create arch walls. Visitors can rotate and angle reﬂective discs until the title of the work, Truth Arrives in Slanted Beams, is projected across the white surfaces. Truth, of course, is slippery, and as the sun passes the carefully angled reﬂected words are destined to disappear. Jose Dávila (Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon) The oldest participant in Desert X, born 60 years before Meyohas, is Agnes Denes, who, while long-known for seminal 1982 work Wheatﬁeld – A Confrontation, is ﬁnally receiving global recognition for a wider and deeper artistic output. Here, she also brings a slowness through a pyramid of plants set within the manicured, formal landscapes of Sunnylands estate. Her Living Pyramids have been erected in various locations recently, with the stepped planting of each iteration drawing from the local ecologies. In California, cacti and wildﬂowers reach skywards, alive with insects and bees, celebrating the geometry and order of the shape and surrounding formal gardens, while also allowing space for chaos, nature, and growth. While a towering pyramid and glimmering clouds have a certain iconicism, and the scale of the landscape perhaps invites artists to engage with enlarged scale and aesthetic to contend with the natural awe of the locations, there is a recurring anti-monumentality amongst the artists. Previous editions offered several large-scape interventions, visible from afar, but – perhaps reﬂecting the more delicate time in politics, climate, and culture the US and the world are now in – there seems a more delicate touch to this edition’s works. Ronald Rael (Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon) Raphael Hefti has strung a taut ﬁbre across 300m, coated on one side with a reﬂective ﬁnish, and while the work is vast in scale and engineering, it is subtly inconspicuous in presence. As the line ripples as wind and sun pass, a sharp geometric glimmer cuts across the hillside rocks as if symbolising the geological line marking the Anthropocene. It is ‘a register of the invisible, of the very air around us and the climate,’ the artist says of a work that visitors expecting grandiosity may ﬁnd underwhelming – or even miss entirely dependent upon weather conditions – but again speaks to a light touch with landscape and place. That is not to say that lightness of touch is also light in profundity. Spread across the Thousand Palms desert is Muhannad Shono’s sculpture What Remains. As with Hefti’s work, a casual observer may not notice Shono’s intervention at ﬁrst, or may even perhaps mistake the fabric land art sculpture as litter carried across the openness to get caught on resilient overgrowth – not a demeaning comment, but an idea present in the politics of the work. Interested in ideas of migration, memory and identity, the artist and his team have carefully unrolled lengths of fabric to align with the direction of the wind, burying some parts into the dune, allowing some ends to ﬂail around creosote bushes. Alison Saar (Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon) The work speaks to current US political issues around immigration (and recent enforced emigration) as well as global migratory situations and our relationship to place. ‘I grew up struggling with notions of home,’ Shono says, ‘…here, the earth in this installation is also unable to settle upon itself.’ Over 90 days of Desert X, weather systems and winds will not just change the artwork, but will intrinsically become co-author, mutating, forcing, covering, ripping or revealing the work. This is not art made to be subjected to market forces or the economy of the gallery, but instead it exists as a barometer for the forces of climate and culture beyond itself, and as such also speaks to predicaments of migrants, refugees, and those passing through places the world over. It is a work that may not survive the American landscape. ‘Time is an essential part of this show,’ Neville Wakeﬁeld says, ‘obviously, the work is always changing as is the environment around it, so we implore you to come back and experience it as many times as possible.’ The notion of temporality is present across many of the works: Hefti’s line only works when conditions permit; Denes’ pyramid will grow, ﬂourish, and perhaps, die over the duration of Desert X; and Shono’s fabrics could get blown away, shredded by foliage, or bury within shifting sands. Time also plays into two works not installed by opening weekend – Kimsooja’s architectural experience of light and colour, and Kapwani Kiwanga’s sculptural mediation upon Palm Springs School of modernist architecture, speaking to migration and the Underground Railroad – both of which will reveal themselves to repeat visitors. Sarah Meyohas (Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon) Two of the strongest, most elemental, works involve material extracted from the ground, taking distinct physicalities though both equally present and powerful. Ronald Rael is both architect and artist, his work similarly straddling disciplines. Adobe Oasis is a mud-construction sculpture that fuses historic vernacular with futuristic methodology. Well suited to California, Rael’s zig-zagging sculpture draws from adobe architecture, a mud-wall approach to building that can be seen across the valley, but formed using a dextrous robot arm, speaking to the technological nature of the state. The result has no pretence of the domestic or habitable, instead acting as both provocation and testbed for how we contend with a climactically challenging future. The form of the interlocking, freestanding mud walls, made by mixing earth with water and created over seven weeks, was formulated to test the extremities of the robotic arm that, strata-like, turned mud into sculpture. It still took manpower, to navigate and coral the robot, to train it and collaborate alongside it, and the result stands as a Richard Serra for the age, speaking not to industrial but vernacular processes. Rael nods to the domestic with a shallow rise of timber steps offering the visitor slight vantage over and beyond the sculpture. This, too, is as much experiment as artistic gesture – with many in LA and beyond unable to get insurance to rebuild properties post-ﬁre, the work reminds us that to go forward we need to look back to how we lived over preceding centuries, and that to be progressive might not only mean signing up to techno- solutions, but to do so while aware of the patterns, behaviours, and slow embedded creativity of the past – all we need is earth, water, technology, and empathy. Raphael Hefti (Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon) This is all also present in Cannupa Hanska Luger’s G.H.O.S.T. Ride, a mobile artwork that will move across the valley. The indigenous-futurist industrial-assemblage of a vehicle acts to explore how deeply-rooted knowledge of a land can be fused into technological imaginings towards speculative solutions that don’t only work for us, temporary custodians of place, but for the very place itself. ‘I pulled some of the technological forms of my people and reinvented it onto this vehicle, looking at indigenous technology as a 20,000-year proof of concept,’ says the artist. This ﬁfth edition of Desert X arrives at a precarious time in US politics. Understandably in this climate, the curators don’t lead with the inherent politics within the 11 works, but they are undoubtedly present throughout, even if secreted through the innocence of found materials, gentle gesture, and subtle undertone. This is perhaps all most redolent in Jose Dávila’s stoic sculpture, The act of being together. It’s a henge-like arrangement of roughly hewn stones, their critical mass and elemental solidity emphasised by rotating wind turbines surrounding it in all directions – the lightness of air reinforcing the weight of Dávila’s material. The rocks are marble, usually something carved into sensual statuary or polished into luxurious bathroom tiles, but here left as immense, irregular lumps, the shape they were when extracted from a Mexican quarry. The US-Mexican border is referenced through the migratory act of moving these stones, their newly shaped objectness in Coachella counterpointed by an extractive void in Mexico. They stand proud, glowing in golden-hour light, as if they were meant to be, as if they have accomplished their own idea of the American dream and found their celebrated place. But we know that just as the stones’ existence in the US is the embodiment of an absence in Mexico, the American dream as it has become is similarly rooted in precarity, inequality, and increasing aggression – as if one may only have a dream if another has a nightmare. But this idea of a dream need not be the case, and each of these Desert X artworks, in their own ways – related to each artist’s lines of inquiry, the speciﬁcities of site, and contention of the elements – speaks to how a new American dream may be formed. One festival of sculpture won’t change the world and give all the answers, but viewers can start to think about how to dream – and art can shift from grandiosity and pomp towards a measured, reﬂective and generous understanding of one another and the places we collaborate with to mutually survive. Desert X runs until 11 May 2025 https://desertx.org/ Photographs throughout © Carlo Zambon, www.carlozambon.com TOPICS California USA BY WILL JENNINGS LAST UPDATED 2 WEEKS AGO IN FEATURES Wallpaper* Newsletter Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors SIGN ME UP By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Play Within a Play Within a Play and Me with a Cigarette , 2025. Acrylic and collage on canvas. Collection of the artist (Image credit: © David Hockney. Photography: © Jonathan Wilkinson) It was in 2020, while isolating in his Normandy house, that David Hockney used the phrase, ‘Do remember, they can’t cancel the spring’, a reminder that sat alongside the drawings of daffodils he was sending to his friends to cheer them up. A similarly resolute, colourful homage to the brilliant relentlessness of life also lies at the heart of Hockney’s largest ever exhibition, at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. More than 400 of his works, created between 1955 and 2025, are featured, bringing together a variety of mediums, from oil and acrylic painting, pencil and charcoal drawings to digital works, including those created on an iPad, and video installations. Inside ‘David Hockney 25’ at Paris’ Fondation Louis Vuitton David Hockney, Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), 1972. Acrylic on canvas. YAGEO Foundation Collection, Taiwan (Image credit: © David Hockney. Photography: © Art Gallery of New South Wales / Jenni Carter) Hockney’s earliest works are included here. Portrait of my Father (1955), created during his youth in Bradford, West Yorkshire, segues into work from the years he spent in London and California. Here, also, are the strikingly simple lines of Hockney’s swimming pools, their bright, ﬂat surfaces stripping the scenes back to a joyful hedonism. The blossoming of his distinctive ﬁgurative style takes shape in portraits, some of friends, some of those close to him as the artist explored his homosexuality. David Hockney, Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy, 1968. Acrylic on canvas. Private collection (Image credit: © David Hockney. Photography: © Fabrice Gibert) It is Hockney’s later career that is the focus throughout, however, with particular attention paid to work created over the last 25 years. Frank Gehry’s 11 galleries at Fondation Louis Vuitton, taking the form of wind- blown glass sails billowing towards the neighbouring Jardin d’Acclimatation, are a light-ﬁlled foil for Hockney’s nature trail, winding its way around the building’s ﬂuid ﬂoor plan. David Hockney, Winter Timber, 2009. Oil on fifteen canvases. LYC Collection (Image credit: © David Hockney. Photography: © Jonathan Wilkinson) Nature blooms in all its glory. Landscapes may have always been present in Hockney’s oeuvre, but here they are omnipresent, a move that can be traced back to the 1990s, when Hockney began to spend more time in Yorkshire, away from his Los Angeles home, eventually returning to settle BY HANNAH SILVER PUBLISHED 8 APRIL 2025 IN FEATURES TRENDING Milan Design Week guide David Hockney in Paris Ikea leans into luxury Wallpaper* Design Awards 2025 SubscribeHomeArchitectureDesign & Interiors Art & Culture Watches & Jewellery Fashion & Beauty Technology Transportation Travel Entertaining Sign up to our newsletterAdvertisement Will Jennings Will Jennings is a writer, educator and artist based in London and is a regular contributor to Wallpaper*. Will is interested in how arts and architectures intersect and is editor of online arts and architecture writing platform recessed.space and director of the charity Hypha Studios, as well as a member of the Association of International Art Critics. Recommended:Next Article ‘David Hockney 25’: inside the artist’s blockbusterParis show ‘David Hockney 25’ has opened at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. Wallpaper’s HannahSilver took a tour of the colossal, colourful show When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an afﬁliate commission. Here’s how it works. ART AND CULTURE EXHIBITIONS & SHOWSDesert X 2025 review: a new American dream grows inthe Coachella ValleyWill Jennings reports from the epic California art festival. Here are the highlights Sign up to our newsletterWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an afﬁliate commission. Here’s how it works.Muhannad Shono(Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon)Of all art biennials and recurring festivals, Southern California’s Desert X isone of the largest in physical expanse. Spread across over 480 sq km ofCoachella Valley’s diverse landscapes, the only way to navigate it all –perhaps suitably for the US – is by car. A well-designed handy appincludes a map to help visitors plot their own route around the 11 site-responsive installations found across desert dunes, rocky valleys, turbineﬁelds, and formal gardens. With such driving required to tick off all theworks, it might be useful to know where to refuel en route – though themap only includes a single, lonely service station across the whole of theartistic terrain.Born in LA, artist Alison Saar understands the importance of gas stations,not only for car culture. Famously documented by Ed Ruscha and EdwardHopper, the traditional petro-macho convention is twisted by Saar withSoul Service Station, an architectural sculpture offering space to recharge thepsyche. Inside the building are devotional objects created with localstudents, speaking to hope and healing, while the pump outside delivers apoem from Harryette Mullen through a conch shell instead of gushing oil.‘When you think about the desert as being this landscape for opening yourmind and letting go of all of those pressures’, Saar said of what shedescribed as a ‘collaboration with the landscape’.Agnes Denes(Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon)By positioning poetics and reﬂection where one may expect the force of oil,Saar presents an alternative connection to land and place rooted incollective connection over extraction, a theme recurring throughout DesertX’s curation from artistic director Neville Wakeﬁeld alongside guest co-curator Kaitlin Garcia-Maestas. With no single overarching theme, thereare nonetheless connections to be drawn across the works, each of whichcollaborates with the landscape and environmental elements in differentways.Sanford Biggers started his career in the LA grafﬁti scene, and his pair ofpop-art clouds puncture the sky with a similar comic clinicality,shimmering sequins making the wind visible. With wind turbines spreadacross the valley ﬂoor and advertising signs lined up along the sides offreeways, Biggers’ vertical interjections are totems of reﬂection invitingmeditation and a slowing pace. ’It is an opportunity to meditate anddream,’ Biggers said.Another artist playing with light is Sarah Meyohas, who, born in 1991, isthe youngest participant. Her work carries a maturity in form and spatialawareness: a white path leading from the road deep into the desert slowlynarrowing and contorting into a sinuous wall that folds back on itself tocreate arch walls. Visitors can rotate and angle reﬂective discs until the titleof the work, Truth Arrives in Slanted Beams, is projected across the whitesurfaces. Truth, of course, is slippery, and as the sun passes the carefullyangled reﬂected words are destined to disappear.Jose Dávila(Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon)The oldest participant in Desert X, born 60 years before Meyohas, is AgnesDenes, who, while long-known for seminal 1982 work Wheatﬁeld – AConfrontation, is ﬁnally receiving global recognition for a wider and deeperartistic output. Here, she also brings a slowness through a pyramid ofplants set within the manicured, formal landscapes of Sunnylands estate.Her Living Pyramids have been erected in various locations recently, withthe stepped planting of each iteration drawing from the local ecologies. InCalifornia, cacti and wildﬂowers reach skywards, alive with insects andbees, celebrating the geometry and order of the shape and surroundingformal gardens, while also allowing space for chaos, nature, and growth.While a towering pyramid and glimmering clouds have a certainiconicism, and the scale of the landscape perhaps invites artists to engagewith enlarged scale and aesthetic to contend with the natural awe of thelocations, there is a recurring anti-monumentality amongst the artists.Previous editions offered several large-scape interventions, visible fromafar, but – perhaps reﬂecting the more delicate time in politics, climate, andculture the US and the world are now in – there seems a more delicatetouch to this edition’s works.Ronald Rael(Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon)Raphael Hefti has strung a taut ﬁbre across 300m, coated on one side witha reﬂective ﬁnish, and while the work is vast in scale and engineering, it issubtly inconspicuous in presence. As the line ripples as wind and sun pass,a sharp geometric glimmer cuts across the hillside rocks as if symbolisingthe geological line marking the Anthropocene. It is ‘a register of theinvisible, of the very air around us and the climate,’ the artist says of awork that visitors expecting grandiosity may ﬁnd underwhelming – oreven miss entirely dependent upon weather conditions – but again speaksto a light touch with landscape and place.That is not to say that lightness of touch is also light in profundity. Spreadacross the Thousand Palms desert is Muhannad Shono’s sculpture WhatRemains. As with Hefti’s work, a casual observer may not notice Shono’sintervention at ﬁrst, or may even perhaps mistake the fabric land artsculpture as litter carried across the openness to get caught on resilientovergrowth – not a demeaning comment, but an idea present in the politicsof the work. Interested in ideas of migration, memory and identity, theartist and his team have carefully unrolled lengths of fabric to align withthe direction of the wind, burying some parts into the dune, allowing someends to ﬂail around creosote bushes.Alison Saar(Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon)The work speaks to current US political issues around immigration (andrecent enforced emigration) as well as global migratory situations and ourrelationship to place. ‘I grew up struggling with notions of home,’ Shonosays, ‘…here, the earth in this installation is also unable to settle uponitself.’ Over 90 days of Desert X, weather systems and winds will not justchange the artwork, but will intrinsically become co-author, mutating,forcing, covering, ripping or revealing the work. This is not art made to besubjected to market forces or the economy of the gallery, but instead itexists as a barometer for the forces of climate and culture beyond itself, andas such also speaks to predicaments of migrants, refugees, and thosepassing through places the world over. It is a work that may not survivethe American landscape.‘Time is an essential part of this show,’ Neville Wakeﬁeld says, ‘obviously,the work is always changing as is the environment around it, so weimplore you to come back and experience it as many times as possible.’The notion of temporality is present across many of the works: Hefti’s lineonly works when conditions permit; Denes’ pyramid will grow, ﬂourish,and perhaps, die over the duration of Desert X; and Shono’s fabrics couldget blown away, shredded by foliage, or bury within shifting sands. Timealso plays into two works not installed by opening weekend – Kimsooja’sarchitectural experience of light and colour, and Kapwani Kiwanga’ssculptural mediation upon Palm Springs School of modernist architecture,speaking to migration and the Underground Railroad – both of which willreveal themselves to repeat visitors.Sarah Meyohas(Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon)Two of the strongest, most elemental, works involve material extractedfrom the ground, taking distinct physicalities though both equally presentand powerful. Ronald Rael is both architect and artist, his work similarlystraddling disciplines. Adobe Oasis is a mud-construction sculpture thatfuses historic vernacular with futuristic methodology. Well suited toCalifornia, Rael’s zig-zagging sculpture draws from adobe architecture, amud-wall approach to building that can be seen across the valley, butformed using a dextrous robot arm, speaking to the technological nature ofthe state.The result has no pretence of the domestic or habitable, instead acting asboth provocation and testbed for how we contend with a climacticallychallenging future. The form of the interlocking, freestanding mud walls,made by mixing earth with water and created over seven weeks, wasformulated to test the extremities of the robotic arm that, strata-like, turnedmud into sculpture. It still took manpower, to navigate and coral the robot,to train it and collaborate alongside it, and the result stands as a RichardSerra for the age, speaking not to industrial but vernacular processes.Rael nods to the domestic with a shallow rise of timber steps offering the visitor slight vantage over and beyond the sculpture. This, too, is as much experiment as artistic gesture – with many in LA and beyond unable to get insurance to rebuild properties post-ﬁre, the work reminds us that to go forward we need to look back to how we lived over preceding centuries, and that to be progressive might not only mean signing up to techno- solutions, but to do so while aware of the patterns, behaviours, and slow embedded creativity of the past – all we need is earth, water, technology, and empathy. Raphael Hefti (Image credit: Desert X. photograph © Carlo Zambon) This is all also present in Cannupa Hanska Luger’s G.H.O.S.T. Ride, a mobile artwork that will move across the valley. The indigenous-futurist industrial-assemblage of a vehicle acts to explore how deeply-rooted knowledge of a land can be fused into technological imaginings towards speculative solutions that don’t only work for us, temporary custodians of place, but for the very place itself. ‘I pulled some of the technological forms of my people and reinvented it onto this vehicle, looking at indigenous technology as a 20,000-year proof of concept,’ says the artist. This ﬁfth edition of Desert X arrives at a precarious time in US politics. Understandably in this climate, the curators don’t lead with the inherent politics within the 11 works, but they are undoubtedly present throughout, even if secreted through the innocence of found materials, gentle gesture, and subtle undertone. This is perhaps all most redolent in Jose Dávila’s stoic sculpture, The act of being together. It’s a henge-like arrangement of roughly hewn stones, their critical mass and elemental solidity emphasised by rotating wind turbines surrounding it in all directions – the lightness of air reinforcing the weight of Dávila’s material. The rocks are marble, usually something carved into sensual statuary or polished into luxurious bathroom tiles, but here left as immense, irregular lumps, the shape they were when extracted from a Mexican quarry. The US-Mexican border is referenced through the migratory act of moving these stones, their newly shaped objectness in Coachella counterpointed by an extractive void in Mexico. They stand proud, glowing in golden-hour light, as if they were meant to be, as if they have accomplished their own idea of the American dream and found their celebrated place. But we know that just as the stones’ existence in the US is the embodiment of an absence in Mexico, the American dream as it has become is similarly rooted in precarity, inequality, and increasing aggression – as if one may only have a dream if another has a nightmare. But this idea of a dream need not be the case, and each of these Desert X artworks, in their own ways – related to each artist’s lines of inquiry, the speciﬁcities of site, and contention of the elements – speaks to how a new American dream may be formed. One festival of sculpture won’t change the world and give all the answers, but viewers can start to think about how to dream – and art can shift from grandiosity and pomp towards a measured, reﬂective and generous understanding of one another and the places we collaborate with to mutually survive. Desert X runs until 11 May 2025 https://desertx.org/ TOPICS California USA BY WILL JENNINGS LAST UPDATED 2 WEEKS AGO IN FEATURESWallpaper* NewsletterReceive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories fromaround the world direct to your inbox.Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors SIGN ME UPBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and areaged 16 or over. David Hockney, Play Within a Play Within a Play and Me with a Cigarette, 2025. Acrylic and collage on canvas. Collection of the artist (Image credit: © David Hockney. Photography: © Jonathan Wilkinson) It was in 2020, while isolating in his Normandy house, that David Hockney used the phrase, ‘Do remember, they can’t cancel the spring’, a reminder that sat alongside the drawings of daffodils he was sending to his friends to cheer them up. A similarly resolute, colourful homage to the brilliant relentlessness of life also lies at the heart of Hockney’s largest ever exhibition, at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. More than 400 of his works, created between 1955 and 2025, are featured, bringing together a variety of mediums, from oil and acrylic painting, pencil and charcoal drawings to digital works, including those created on an iPad, and video installations. Inside ‘David Hockney 25’ at Paris’ Fondation Louis Vuitton David Hockney, Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), 1972. Acrylic on canvas. YAGEO Foundation Collection, Taiwan (Image credit: © David Hockney. Photography: © Art Gallery of New South Wales / Jenni Carter) Hockney’s earliest works are included here. Portrait of my Father (1955), created during his youth in Bradford, West Yorkshire, segues into work from the years he spent in London and California. Here, also, are the strikingly simple lines of Hockney’s swimming pools, their bright, ﬂat surfaces stripping the scenes back to a joyful hedonism. The blossoming of his distinctive ﬁgurative style takes shape in portraits, some of friends, some of those close to him as the artist explored his homosexuality. David Hockney, Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy, 1968. Acrylic on canvas. Private collection (Image credit: © David Hockney. Photography: © Fabrice Gibert) It is Hockney’s later career that is the focus throughout, however, with particular attention paid to work created over the last 25 years. Frank Gehry’s 11 galleries at Fondation Louis Vuitton, taking the form of wind- blown glass sails billowing towards the neighbouring Jardin d’Acclimatation, are a light-ﬁlled foil for Hockney’s nature trail, winding its way around the building’s ﬂuid ﬂoor plan. David Hockney, Winter Timber, 2009. Oil on fifteen canvases. LYC Collection (Image credit: © David Hockney. Photography: © Jonathan Wilkinson) Nature blooms in all its glory. Landscapes may have always been present in Hockney’s oeuvre, but here they are omnipresent, a move that can be traced back to the 1990s, when Hockney began to spend more time in Yorkshire, away from his Los Angeles home, eventually returning to settle BY HANNAH SILVER PUBLISHED 8 APRIL 2025 IN FEATURES 106 T H E A C T O F B E I N G T O G E T H E R JOSE DÁVILA 107 108 Public Art Fund with % of Expenditures FY Beginning Fund Balance Total Expenditures Total Revenues Ending Balance Percentage of spend 2014/2015 1,435,233 485,822 294,489 1,323,900 34% 2015/2016 1,323,900 470,565 760,297 1,694,212 36% 2016/2017 1,694,212 491,906 245,745 1,448,355 29% 2017/2018 1,448,355 107,013 202,200 1,383,878 7% 2018/2019 1,383,878 261,090 255,751 1,222,295 19% 2019/2020 1,222,295 107,672 266,120 1,261,476 9% 2020/2021 1,261,476 241,305 241,523 1,140,484 19% 2021/2022 1,140,484 200,219 405,743 1,244,941 18% 2022/2023 1,244,941 656,671 785,175 1,302,639 53% 2023/2024 1,302,639 273,285 480,894 1,510,248 21% 24%AVERAGE 109 FY Beginning Fund Balance Projected 40% Expenditures Projected Revenues Ending Balance 2024/2025 1,510,248$ 604,099$ 615,375$ 1,521,524$ 2025/2026 1,521,524$ 608,610$ 320,300$ 1,233,214$ 2026/2027 1,233,214$ 493,286$ 235,000$ 974,928$ 2027/2028 974,928$ 389,971$ 333,244$ 918,201$ $- $200,000 $400,000 $600,000 $800,000 $1,000,000 $1,200,000 $1,400,000 $1,600,000 2024/2025 2025/2026 2026/2027 2027/2028 40% Expenditure Projections and Revenue Projections Beginning Fund Balance Projected 40% Expenditures Projected Revenues Ending Balance 110 Projected Expenditures and Revenues 111 112 Page 1 of 2 CULTURAL ARTS COMMITTEE CITY OF PALM DESERT STAFF REPORT MEETING DATE: May 14, 2025 PREPARED BY: Erica Powell, Management Analyst SUBJECT: REVISE PRIORITY ONE OF THE CULTURAL ARTS COMMITTEE’S FISCAL YEAR 2025-2026 WORK PLAN RECOMMENDATION: Revise priority one of the Cultural Arts Committee’s previously developed Fiscal Year 2025 -2026 Work Plan and forward to the City Council for approval. BACKGROUND/ANALYSIS: At its meeting on April 9, 2025, the Cultural Arts Committee (CAC) developed a focused work plan for Fiscal Year 2025–2026 to guide its public art initiatives which consisted of the following three priorities: 1. San Pablo Phase 2 Roundabout – Dueling Palms by Kyle Absolom Originally selected through the 2021 Call for Entries, Dueling Palms by Kyle Absolom was a highly rated proposal, and the City Council requested its installation at the San Pablo Avenue and College of the Desert roundabout. Staff has worked with the artist through the design development phase. 2. Public Art Programming Subcommittee Establish a subcommittee of up to three Committee members, to develop initiatives that increase community engagement with public art. This subcommittee will ident ify programming opportunities and explore partnerships and outreach strategies to expand public participation. Recommendations will be presented to the full committee for review and approval. 3. Utility Cabinet Beautification Review and Refresh Assess existing utility cabinet artwork to determine necessary removals, replacements, or maintenance. A strategic plan will ensure equitable distribution of art-wrapped cabinets while attracting diverse artists. This plan will outline priority locations, artist select ion processes, and budget requirements, with a phased implementation balancing maintenance and new installations. Update to Priority #1: Since its April meeting, staff has initiated the process of recommending termination of the Dueling Palms proposal. However, staff recommends that the San Pablo Phase 2 Roundabout sculpture remain a top Committee priority. This revised scope would focus on developing and 113 Cultural Arts Committee City of Palm Desert (Revise Priority One of the Cultural Arts Committee’s FY 2025-2026 Work Plan) Page 2 of 2 issuing a new Call for Submissions and managing the selection and contracting process for a new artwork at this location. FINANCIAL IMPACT: Funding for the CAC’s FY 2025-2026 Work Plan priorities will be included in the FY 2025 -2026 Public Art Budget for the City Council’s consideration. ATTACHMENT: 1. Palm Desert City Council Approved Cultural Arts Committee FY 2024-2025 Work Plan 114 YES: 5 NO: 0 ABSTAIN: 0 CONFLICT: 0 ABSENT: 0 ALL ACTIONS ARE DRAFT PENDING APPROVAL OF THE FINAL MINUTES Minute Action Summary Palm Desert City Council - Regular Meeting Agenda Number:13.g. Title:APPROVE CULTURAL ARTS COMMITTEE FISCAL YEAR 2024/25 WORK PLAN Date:Thursday, March 28, 2024 Motion by:Councilmember Kelly Seconded by:Mayor Pro Tem Harnik Approve the Cultural Arts Committee’s Fiscal Year 2024/25 Work Plan. YES: 5 NO: 0 ABSTAIN: 0 CONFLICT: 0 ABSENT: 0 Motion Carried Mayor Pro Tem Harnik Mayor Quintanilla Councilmember Kelly Councilmember Nestande Councilmember Trubee 115 Page 1 of 2 CITY OF PALM DESERT STAFF REPORT MEETING DATE: March 28, 2024 PREPARED BY: Erica Powell, Management Analyst REQUEST: APPROVE CULTURAL ARTS COMMITTEE FISCAL YEAR 2024/25 WORK PLAN RECOMMENDATION: Approve the Cultural Arts Committee’s Fiscal Year 2024/25 Work Plan. BACKGROUND/ANALYSIS: On February 14, 2024, the Cultural Arts Committee (CAC) established the following priorities for the FY 2024/25 Work Plan. 2025/26 El Paseo Sculpture Exhibition - Located in the median on El Paseo between Hwy 74 and Portola, eighteen (18) sculptures are displayed for two (2) years. A $5,000 honorarium is awarded to each artist. One (1) year preparation from the Call for Entries to Installation. From July 2024 to early 2025, staff will be working with the new artists on contracting and plans for installation, as well as the current artists on plans for deinstallation and pick up of sculptures. San Pablo Phase II Roundabout Sculpture: Dueling Palms by Kyle Absolom - After the Call for Entries was released in early 2021 for a sculpture to be installed in the roundabout at San Pablo Avenue and San Gorgonio Way, the top two (2) finalists were selected by the City Council and the community voted on their favorite. The runner up, Dueling Palms by Kyle Absolom, was so well received by the community that the Cultural Arts Committee and the City Council suggested it be considered for installation in the San Pablo Phase II roundabout located at the entrance of the Civic Center and College of the Desert. Staff will bring this forward for review in the next few months and if approved, work will commence in FY 2024/2025. 2025 Desert X Sponsorship – Desert X is an internationally renowned contemporary art exhibition that runs biannually each spring throughout the Coachella Valley. Since its inception in 2017, the City has provided sponsorship funding and hosted at least two exhibition sites for each Desert X exhibition. Funds are normally used towards exhibition support and the creation of free public programming. This exhibition engages the local community and has worked to develop educational programming for the local school districts. If funding for the 2025 exhibition is approved, staff will work with the organizer on a sponsorship agreement and permitting for at least two (2) exhibition sites. Page 143 of 382116 City of Palm Desert Approve CAC FY 2024/2025 Work Plan Page 2 of 2 Strategic Plan: The Cultural Arts Committee’s FY 2024/25 Work Plan is in line with the Arts & Culture Mini- Vision contained in the Strategic Plan, which states: Arts and culture give a community its soul. Palm Desert is the cultural core of the Coachella Valley. Cultural tourism drives economic growth in Palm Desert. The community is host to internationally recognized cultural events that bring significant economic benefits to the City. Palm Desert is a leader in arts and education, ensuring a well-rounded population that possesses high levels of creativity and critical thinking skills. FINANCIAL IMPACT: Funding for the priorities listed in the CAC’s FY 2024/25 Work Plan will be included in the FY 2024/25 Public Art Budget for the City Council’s consideration. ATTACHMENT: 1. CAC Priorities FY 2024/2025 – Power Point Presentation Page 144 of 382117 2024/2025 WORKPLAN GOALS Palm Desert Cultural Arts Committee February 14, 2024 –Regular Meeting Page 145 of 382118 BACKGROUND –WHY ARE WE HERE? Receive Committee Input and Direction pertaining to goals and priorities for the Fiscal Year 2024/2025 Select three (3) priorities as a Committee Present items in the form of a workplan to Council for approval 2024/2025 WORKPLAN GOALS 2Page146 of 382119 CULTURAL ARTS COMMITTEE PRIORITIES Ranking Priority Justification 1 El Paseo Sculpture Exhibition The exhibition is in the central shopping district and receives frequent foot traffic. Exhibition adds elegance and style to El Paseo. 2 San Pablo Roundabout Phase II – Dueling Palms Received community’s involvement and support of the City Council. 3 Desert X Participate in an internationally recognized contemporary art exhibition in associated with the other communities in the Coachella Valley. The exhibition puts Palm Desert on the map as a significant art and cultural destination. Attracts locals and tourists. 4 Temporary Installation at the southeast corner of Fred Waring and San Pablo Ave •Highly visible location. 5 Community Art Gallery, establish new location and action plan 2024/2025 WORKPLAN GOALS 3Page147 of 382120 DISCUSSION 2024/2025 WORKPLAN GOALS 4 Select three (3) top priorities Page 148 of 382121 122 Page 1 of 2 CULTURAL ARTS COMMITTEE CITY OF PALM DESERT STAFF REPORT MEETING DATE: May 14, 2025 PREPARED BY: Erica Powell, Management Analyst SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR DIRECTION TO RELOCATE OR DEACCESSION OF LILY PAD BENCH BY MICHAEL TODD RECOMMENDATION: Provide direction to staff on the relocation or deaccession of Lily Pad Bench by Michael Todd. BACKGROUND/ANALYSIS: In 2004, as part of an initiative to replace standard concrete benches along El Paseo with artist - designed alternatives, the City issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) seeking public art bench designs. The call received 168 responses, of which 20 were selected for potential use. Ultimately, the Art in Public Places Commission (AIPP) sponsored the fabrication and installation of one bench: Lily Pad Bench by artist Michael Todd. The piece was formally approved on May 19, 2004, purchased for $10,000, and i nstalled on February 10, 2005. The sculpture has remained in its original location at the corner of El Paseo and Sage Lane, directly in front of what is now Shake Shack . Constructed of a 1-inch-thick aluminum plate, the work features five circular “lily pa d” forms, each 24 inches in diameter. On April 6, 2025, City Code Enforcement received a complaint from a visitor who reported walking into the bench and sustaining a minor injury while navigating the sidewalk in the evening. The complainant noted that the pedestrian path had become more constrained due to the restaurant’s current outdoor seating configuration, making the bench more of an obstruction to foot traffic. Given the bench’s age, condition, and evolving pedestrian use patterns along El Paseo, it may be appropriate to consider removing Lily Pad Bench from its current location. As such, Staff recommends relocating the artwork to the City’s new Community Park, where it would remain publicly accessible and integrated into a safer, more spacious environ ment. Staff is also open to other suggestions from Committee members, provided the new location is in the public right -of- way and not on private property. Should the Committee determine that relocation is not feasible or appropriate, staff is also open to discussing deaccession of the piece in accordance with the City’s Public Art Deaccessioning Policy. FINANCIAL IMPACT: The bench was originally purchased for $10,000 in 2004. A current appraisal or fair market value has not been established. Estimated costs associated with removal, transportation, and reinstallation—including site preparation and new signage—are not expected to exceed $2,500. 123 Cultural Arts Committee City of Palm Desert (Request for Direction to Relocate or Deaccession of Lily Pad Bench by Michael Todd) Page 2 of 2 ATTACHMENTS: 1. Deaccession Policy 2. Deaccession Worksheet 3. Current photographs 124 City of Palm Desert’s Public Art Deaccessioning Policy DEFINITION Deaccession means the formal process to permanently remove a City-owned public artwork by selling, donating, or destroying it. POLICY A.The purpose of the Public Art Deaccessioning Policy (“Policy”) is to maintain a deaccession program that results in high-quality, City-owned public artwork; eliminate artworks that are unsafe, not repairable, or no longer meet the needs of the City, and respect the creative rights of artists. B.Although the City of Palm Desert would like each public artwork to remain in situ for a minimum of 15 years (although 15 years is not a limit on the life of an artwork), it recognizes that public artwork is not necessarily going to remain in place in perpetuity. C.Any proposal for removal, destruction, or relocation of an artwork shall be submitted to the Cultural Arts Committee by City staff and reviewed according to the policies and procedures contained herein and shall be deliberate and independent of political pressures, fluctuations in artistic taste, popularity, and public opinion. D.At regular intervals, the City’s public artwork collection shall be evaluated by the Cultural Arts Committee to determine the condition of each artwork and determine whether any artwork should be deaccessioned. APPLICABLE ARTWORK This Policy applies to all City-owned artwork acquired through the Public Art program or through donation. In the case of donated artwork, all legal documents surrounding the donation must be reviewed and a legal opinion rendered by the City Attorney before proceeding with the deaccessioning process. CRITERIA FOR DEACCESSIONING One or more of the following criteria must apply prior to an artwork being deaccessed: 1.Damage Beyond Repair - The artwork has been damaged and repair is unfeasible or repair costs would exceed the value of the artwork. 2.Safety - The artwork is deemed hazardous and a threat to public safety. 3. Deterioration - The artwork has deteriorated to the point that the restoration cost is greater than its monetary value or the artwork has deteriorated beyond the original design and restoration would prove impractical or would render the work essentially false. 4.Security - The condition or security of the artwork cannot be reasonably guaranteed or the City of Palm Desert cannot properly care for or store the artwork. 5.Site Alteration - In the case of site-specific artwork, the artwork has become inappropriate, is no longer accessible to the public, it is unsafe, or it is due to be destroyed and would severely alter its relationship to the site. 125 City of Palm Desert’s Public Art Deaccessioning Policy 07/13/2023 [Type here] 6.Excessive Maintenance - The artwork requires excessive or unreasonable maintenance. 7.Loss of Site – The current site is no longer available and no suitable alternate site for the artwork is available. 8.Aesthetic Value - The artwork is of poor quality or is judged to have little aesthetic and/or historical or cultural value. 9.Failure to Comply - If the approved terms of the contract pursuant to which the artwork was installed have not been fulfilled. 10. Inauthentic - The artwork is a forgery or in violation of existing copyright laws. 11.Theft – The artwork has been stolen. Any stolen artwork will be documented through an official police report and a report prepared by the entity that owns or is responsible for the site of loss. SEQUENCE OF ACTION / PROCEDURES 1.Deaccession requests may be submitted by a neighborhood organization, City department, independent City board or commission, or a City Council member. The Cultural Arts Committee will review each preliminary request. City staff will work with the applicant to bring a full proposal to the Cultural Arts Committee. 2.Staff will provide the applicant with a Deaccessioning Form that will serve as the applicant’s formal request for consideration by the Cultural Arts Committee. 3.Staff (with assistance from the property owner, if applicable) will make reasonable effort to notify and consult with any living artist(s) whose work is being considered for deaccession as to the best procedure for artwork removal. The City will allow the artist(s) 30 days to respond. 4.If the artist(s) is/are deceased, the City will make reasonable efforts to contact artist(s) estate. 5.After an attempt to contact the artist(s) is made, staff will consult with the City Attorney on how to proceed with the deaccessioning. 6.Once the request is reviewed by the City Attorney, the applicant will complete and return the Deaccessioning Form. 7.City staff will use the information from the Deaccessioning Form to complete a staff report addressing the proposed removal of the artwork. The staff report will provide all available relevant information and materials to the Cultural Arts Committee, including, but not limited to: a.Artist, Title, and Location of artwork. b.Name of property owner and contact information. c.Property owner at the time of commission or installation. d.Year commissioned/purchased, original cost of artwork, and applicable Art in Public Places (AIPP) fee. e.Dimensions and removal/re-installation instructions. f.Appraisal of the artwork provided by a qualified art appraiser and current condition of artwork. If appropriate, current fair market value of the artwork. g.Detailed reason for deaccessioning/relocating artwork. h.Proposed deaccession method or new location for artwork (relocation, sale, donation, demolition, etc.). 126 City of Palm Desert’s Public Art Deaccessioning Policy 07/13/2023 [Type here] i.Maintenance evaluation. j.Any relevant images. 8.The staff report will then be placed on the Cultural Arts Committee agenda at a regularly scheduled public meeting, where it will be reviewed and voted on. 9.If the Cultural Arts Committee approves the deaccession, City staff will bring the staff report before the City Council for review and final action. 10.If deaccession is approved by the City Council, all documents will be updated to reflect the deaccessioning of the artwork. Staff will review property records from the County Recorder’s Office and if an artwork covenant is recorded against the property, the City will cause a release covenant to be filed. 11.The deaccessioning process should be documented in both written and visual form. 12.If an artwork is sold, proceeds should be deposited into the Art in Public Places fund. 13.The City’s Risk Manager must be notified so that the work can be removed from the City’s insurance policy. DEACCESSIONING METHOD OPTIONS 1.If appropriate, reasonable efforts will be made to move the work to a new location within the City. If the artwork was designed for a specific site, City will consider the artist’s intent when deciding where to relocate the artwork. 2.The artist(s) will be given the first option to purchase or exchange the artwork. If the artist(s) decides to purchase the work, they will be responsible for the cost of the removal of the artwork from the current site. If the artist(s) is/are deceased, the legal heir(s) will have first rights of purchase. The artist(s) can purchase the artwork at fair market value according to the appraisals obtained by a qualified appraiser. 3.Put the work in storage until a new, appropriate location can be found. 4.Donate work to a school, an educational or non-profit organization. 5.Dispose of work in an appropriate manner. PROVISIONS FOR EMERGENCY REMOVAL In the event that the structural integrity or condition of an artwork is such that, in the opinion of the Public Art staff, the artwork presents an imminent threat to public safety, the City Manager may authorize its immediate removal without Cultural Arts Committee action or the artist’s consent and have the work placed in temporary storage. The artist and the Cultural Arts Committee will be notified of this action within 30 days. The Committee will then consider options for disposition: repair, reinstallation, maintenance or deaccessioning. If the artwork cannot be removed without being altered, modified, or destroyed, and if the Artist’s Agreement with the City and County has not waived his/her rights under the California Art Preservation Act and the Visual Artists Rights Act, City staff will attempt to gain such written permission before proceeding. In the event that this cannot be accomplished before action is required in order to protect the public health and safety, the City Manager shall proceed with the advice of the City Attorney. 127 City of Palm Desert’s Public Art Deaccessioning Policy 07/13/2023 [Type here] COMPLIANCE WITH APPLICABLE POLICIES AND REGULATIONS Deaccession and removal of artwork will be done in a manner that complies with all other applicable city, state, and federal procedures, policies and regulations. For example, deaccession and removal actions must comply with applicable procedures and laws relating to the disposition of city property and with laws protecting artists’ rights. 128 City of Palm Desert Public Art Deaccessioning/Relocating Worksheet Artist: Michael Todd Title: Lily Pad Bench Location of work: Sage/El Paseo (south west corner) Name of property: _City right-of-way Contact name: Erica Powell Phone: 760-776-6346 Email: epowell@palmdesert.gov Property owner at the time of commission: City of Palm Desert Year commissioned/purchased: 2004, CC approved 6/10/2004, installed 2/10/2005__ Purchase Price / Art in Public Places fee / Value at time of install: $10,000____ Dimensions: Height: Width: Depth: Weight: 1 inch thick aluminum plate with 24” diameter circles Estimated current fair market value: unknown Source of estimation: n/a Proposed deaccession reviewed by City Attorney: Yes: No: Detailed reason for deaccessioning artwork: Bench is located in front of new restaurant, Shake Shack. The pedestrian path has become more constrained, making the bench more of an obstruction to foot traffic. The City received a complaint from a visitor who reported walking into the bench and sustaining a minor injury. Proposed deaccessioning method: Staff recommends relocating to the future north palm desert park and integrating into a shaded, environment. New location for work (if it is being moved): North Palm Desert Community Park. Condition: Excellent XX Good Fair Poor Maintenance evaluation and instructions: Minimal maintenance due to the materials. This piece will be part of the Public Art maintenance schedule. 129 130 Lil y Pad (bench) by Michael Todd Location: El Paseo at Sage Lane, in front of Shake Shack 131 132 APPOINTED BODIES C I T Y O F P A L M D E S E R T C I T Y C L E R K ’S O F F I C E 2 0 2 5 133 C I T Y O F P A L M D E S E R T THE BROWN ACT Exceptions: Ceremonial events, conferences, community meetings, and individual contacts Bottom Line: Avoid discussing committee business with members outside of a meeting G o l d e n R u l e : D e c i s i o n s a n d d e l i b e r a t i o n s m u s t o c c u r i n p u b l i c m e e t i n g s 134 OK OK OK BAD OK BAD WORSE WARNING: Serial Meetings Communications whether verbal or written (emails or text messages) which "daisy chains," leading to a discussion and potential decision outside of the public meeting: 135 Statement of Economic Interest (NetFile) Annual StatementAssuming Office Leaving Office April 1 of every yearwithin 30 days within 30 days 136 When You Have A Conflict of Interest - Recusal Leave the Meeting RoomAnnounce Your Conflict To Speak During Public Comment You may not influence the decision and must leave the meeting room You must announce you have a financial conflict & describe the nature of the conflict If you would still like to comment as a member of the public, please contact the City Attorney or Clerk 137 AB 1234: State-Required Ethics Training (NetFile) All Appointed Members Minimum of 2 hours of state-approved ethics training Must be renewed every two years Certificate are time monitored IMPORTANT: Choose the course for Local Officials, not State Officials 138 C I T Y O F P A L M D E S E R T Failure to Comply with Law PDMC 2.34.100 Members who fail to complete mandatory training or required disclosures by the deadline will be automatically suspended five days after the City Clerk certifies that three notifications were sent. Service is immediately reinstated upon compliance. 139 Public Records Act All records (documents, emails, text, voicemail) pertaining to city business, regardless of its location (personal devices and accounts) must be disclosed upon request. Best Practice: Do not text/email about City business without including a staff member so that it is captured in the City's server. 140 C I T Y O F P A L M D E S E R T Staff Liaison Serves as the City Manager’s delegate to the committee. Leads the agenda preparation Ensures topics are within committee purview Preparing SR and background materials Decides order of agenda items Keeps the City Manager informed of committee activities Facilitate communication between the committee and city staff/council Remain neutral and facilitate discussions without influencing decisions Advisor to the Chairperson on meeting protocols Recording Secretary Prepares and publishes agenda Send notification email & supplemental Prepares meeting minutes Tracks attendance Ensures compliance with Brown Act Advisor to the Staff Liaison on meeting protocols Intervenes only when necessary Roles and Responsibilities 141 C I T Y O F P A L M D E S E R T Chairperson/Vice Chairperson Appointed at the first meeting after July 1 to a one-year term Vice Chairperson serves in the absence of the Chairperson Facilitator of Meetings Ensures meetings run efficiently and fairly Follows the agenda and keeps discussions on track Encourages balanced participation from all members Neutral Leader Guides discussions without dominating or advocating Ensure all viewpoints are heard without bias Summarizes key points and builds consensus Enforces Rules & Procedures Upholds Brown Act and parliamentary procedures Maintains decorum and professionalism Roles and Responsibilities 142 C I T Y O F P A L M D E S E R T Agenda Management PDMC 2.34.080: “The staff liaison of each appointed body shall oversee approving and placing items on the agenda.” Ensure topics align with committee purview Prepare SR and background materials Agendas should be posted one week in advance 143 C I T Y O F P A L M D E S E R T 1 Notification Email RS will send agenda notification and request any agenda related questions be submitted at least 48 hours before meeting 2 Provide Responses Staff liaison to coordinate a response and provide it to the RS as soon as possible 3 Prepare Memo The RS will prepare the memo and distribute to members and post online 4 Quality Control & Timeliness The RS will distribute the responses as provided. If the response is received late, SL will have to respond during the meeting. Questions and Answers 144 C I T Y O F P A L M D E S E R T Annual Work Plans Ensure committees are focused and aligned with City Council priorities Helps City leadership allocate resources Prevent taking on projects outside their purview w/o authorization Developing a Work Plan Typically 3-5 objectives Can be recurring significant efforts or new initiatives Multi-year objectives should be renewed annually. Must be approved by the City Council (consent) Amendments A request for a significant effort (beyond a presentation or project update) may trigger a WP amendment Agendize discussion of amending the work plan and seek approval Amended Work Plans must be approved by the City Council Annual Work Plans 145 C I T Y O F P A L M D E S E R T Pre-Meeting with Chairperson Prior to the meeting, have a 1-on-1 with the Chairperson to run down the agenda, advise where a motion and a second is expected, that member comments should remain focused on requests for action within their purview, and help prepare them to run an efficient meeting. 146 C I T Y O F P A L M D E S E R T Scenario 1 A Committee Member pushes a topic outside the committee’s jurisdiction 147 C I T Y O F P A L M D E S E R T S1: Recommended Approach 1. Initial Intervention (Chairperson’s Role): Politely redirect the discussion: “I appreciate your interest in this issue, but it falls outside the committee’s responsibilities. Let’s stay focused on today’s agenda items.” 2. Staff Liaison’s Role in Reinforcement: Provide clarification: “That’s a City Council-level decision, not within the purview of this committee. If you'd like, I can direct you to the appropriate department or help you request an item for City Council consideration.” Offer an alternative: “We can check with the City Manager’s office on whether this issue is being addressed elsewhere.” 3. Final Redirect (Chairperson’s Role): If the member persists, reinforce committee boundaries: “We have a process for adding items to future agendas, but since this is not within this committee’s authority, it would not be appropriate for discussion here. Let’s move on to the next item.” If disruptions continue, the Chair may call for a recess or remind members of meeting decorum. 148 C I T Y O F P A L M D E S E R T Scenario 2 A Committee wants to direct staff on operational matters 149 Committee Purview (Your Advisory Role) Providing recommendations on programs, policies, or priorities referred to the committee Offering community-based insight on how proposed actions may affect residents Identifying emerging trends, needs, or opportunities within the committee's focus area Reviewing and commenting on draft plans, designs, or outreach strategies Examples: Recommending locations or features for future park development (Parks & Rec) Suggesting strategies to increase public engagement in civic programs (Civic Engagement) Recommending cultural preservation goals for historic properties (CRPC) Identifying gaps in library programs or resources to better serve the community (LAC) Offering insight on local impacts of homelessness initiatives (HTF) Operational Decisions (Handled by City staff) Operations vs. Committee Purview Day-to-day administration of City services and programs Managing budgets, contracts, and personnel Determining workflows, timelines, and resources Implementing Council-approved policies and regulations Making technical or compliance-based decisions Example: Selecting a contractor for a project Adjusting staff schedules or workload Choosing how to implement a marketing strategy 150 C I T Y O F P A L M D E S E R T S2: Recommended Approach 1. Initial Intervention (Chairperson’s Role): Politely correct the misunderstanding: “Our role is to make recommendations, not to direct city staff on operations. Any operational decisions need to go through the City Manager.” 2. Staff Liaison’s Role in Reinforcement: Cite Palm Desert Municipal Code (PDMC) § 2.04.050 & § 2.04.060, which clarify that operational decisions fall under the authority of the City Manager: “Per PDMC, staff may take direction only through the City Manager’s office, not from committees or individual members .” Offer an alternative approach: “If you’d like to formally recommend an action, the committee can make a motion for staff to research the feasibility of the idea and present it to City Council .” 3. Final Redirect (Chairperson’s Role): If the committee persists in giving direct instructions, reaffirm city policies: “To stay compliant with city governance, we need to follow the appropriate channels. If this issue is a priority, we can document it as a formal recommendation to City Counci l.” Redirect and move forward: “Since this falls outside our jurisdiction, let’s refocus on today’s agenda.” 151 C I T Y O F P A L M D E S E R T Scenario 3 A heated debate erupts over an item NOT on the agenda 152 C I T Y O F P A L M D E S E R T S3: Recommended Approach 1. Initial Intervention (Chairperson’s Role): Quickly refocus discussion: “I understand this is an important issue, but since this topic is not on today’s agenda, we cannot have a full discussion or take action at this time. If this is a priority, we can request that it be placed on a future agenda.” 2. Staff Liaison’s Role in Reinforcement: Cite Brown Act (§ 54954.2) to explain why non-agendized topics cannot be discussed: “Under the Brown Act, discussions must be noticed on the agenda to ensure transparency. Since this topic was not formally agendized, we cannot engage in extended discussion or make decisions on it today.” Offer alternatives: “If the committee wants to pursue this issue further, we can either: Formally request it be placed on the next agenda for discussion and possible action. Staff can note the concern and direct it to the appropriate city department outside of this meeting.” 3. Final Redirect (Chairperson’s Role): If members persist, firmly reinforce compliance: “This discussion is now out of order. To comply with city policy and the Brown Act, we must return to our scheduled agenda items .” If disruptions continue, call for a brief recess to restore order. 153 154 Cultural Arts Committee Year 2025 2025 2025 2025 2024 2024 2024 2024 2024 2024 2024 2024 Month Apr Mar Feb Jan Dec Nov Oct Sep Aug July Jun May Day 9 12 12 8 11 13 9 11 10 12 8 Adney, Carol P P - - P P P P - P P P 0 0 Boren, Maureen P A - - P P P P - E E P 1 2 Flint, Lori E P - - P P P P - E P P 0 2 Hauer, Liz P P - - P P P P - P P P 0 0 Mitze, Tom P P - - P P P P - P P P 0 0 Rose, Pia P P - - P P P P - P E P 0 1 Simley, Ann P P - - P P P P - P P P 0 0 P Present P Remote A Absent E Excused -No Meeting Resigned/Not Yet Appointed Palm Desert Municipal Code 2.34.010 Three unexcused absences from regular meeting in any twelve-month period shall constitute an automatic resignation of members holding office on boards that meet bimonthly. Please contact the Recording Secretary to discuss any attendance concerns. Total Absences Unexcused Excused 155