morag myerscough's kinetic installation enlivens coachella desert

COACHELLA VALLEY MUSIC AND ARTS FESTIVAL returns to california

As the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival returns to California, the Empire Polo Field is once again transformed into a kaleidoscopic playground hosting an array of monumental installations. Curated by the Public Art Company, the showcase synergizes art, technology, and community with a dynamic interplay of light, color, form, and scale. The interactive artworks, with notable interventions by Morag Myerscough, HANNAH, and Nebbia, invite multi-dimensional reimaginings and explorations with vast architectural forms.

Myerscough brings a touch of whimsy to the expansive desert landscape with Dancing in the Sky. The immersive installation unfolds as a geometric plaza that sits in dialogue with its surrounding environment, beckoning festival-goers within through a series of gateways that invite exploration. Its kinetic elements gently dance in the sky, their abstract shapes overhead seemingly harmonized with the energy of the activity on the ground and the sun above.

all images by Lance Gerber

morag myerscough’s kaleidoscopic plaza sparks joy

Leaving an indelible mark on Coachella 2024’s festival landscape, the art installations invite curiosity, interaction, and rest under the desert sun while revealing experimental architectural forms and material explorations. Morag Myerscough’s Dancing in the Sky defines a 125-by-125–foot space within the festival grounds, enlivened by a series of structures of varying heights, some up to 60 feet, forming a skyline that captures the imagination and draws the eye to the beauty of the desert sky.

Through bold yet familiar colors and dynamic shapes, it invites exploration and sparks collective joy, inviting festival-goers to step inside and uncover its colorful labyrinth. The artist best known for her brilliant, patterned environments here emphasizes the natural beauty of the sky as part of the work, framing and illuminating the active space to create a fantastical, mesmerizing environment evoking an abstract fairytale. At night the installation transforms into an ethereal gathering space amid the darkness of the festival, its glowing aura and intricate thresholds fostering a communal sense of belonging.

monumental installations engulf festival-goers

‘Art has the power to transform spaces and minds alike,’ notes Raffi Lehrer, founder of Public Art Company and Curatorial Advisor for Coachella’s art program. ‘We aim to not only adorn the festival grounds but to create environments that provoke thought, evoke emotion, and encourage a shared experience among all attendees. Our collaboration with these incredible artists brings a fresh perspective to what art at a music festival can be.’

Elsewhere at the Coachella Festival, HANNAH presents a series of soaring sculptures that merge 3D printing with traditional craftsmanship for Monarchs: A House in Six Parts. A cluster of towers accompanied by smaller furniture objects rise up to 22 meters high to create a distinct gathering space amid the bustle of the festival. Pushing the boundaries of architectural design, the studio creates the nature-inspired installation’s intricate forms by merging 3D printed concrete and digitally fabricated wood. Likewise exploring materiality, Babylon by Nebbia offers a fusion of ancient and futuristic architectural forms giving rise to a monumental structure that serves as both a visual landmark and a sanctuary of shade and light. The architects have employed a stacked assembly of monolithic blocks to create an inhabitable, cathedral-like interior void, projection mapped along the surface to create a 360, multifaceted environment.