Display This Oasis by Katie Stout

Katie Stout makes you think differently about common objects, always casting them with a colorful, funky twist. For Coachella, she imagined a four-story-tall fountain but knew it was out of sync with desert water conservation. So she created it in augmented reality (AR)—a garden-like space where “water” falls from one of many floating, biomorphic forms.

“I like moving beyond a sculpture that’s grounded in reality,” she says. “I want you to feel like you’re really in it, even though it doesn’t exist. I want it to feel like a playground, with things to discover. And also a little confusing, being in this thing that looks like it will tickle you but nothing happens.”

Open the Coachella Camera feature in the mobile app, point your phone at the target image on site, and enter the virtual environment.

Etherea by Edoardo Tresoldi

Edoardo Tresoldi has installed three wire-mesh sculptures whose translucency weaves onto the festival grounds something that isn’t really there: neoclassical-and Baroque-inspired architecture of identical shapes ranging in scale from three to five to seven stories tall, or 36, 54 and 72 feet, respectively. The “structures” breathe through the clouds and the wind, transferring the cosmic archetype of the sky into ephemeral domes through the language of classic architecture. The broken rhythms of the wire mesh generate sequences of architectural abstractions and amplified points of view. The optical effect changes with the light and atmospheric conditions as well as the perspective of the viewer. Etherea offers a dreamlike experience, a portal for contemplation, and an encounter between human and sky, which grows and shrinks as you move between the structures.

Lodestar by Randy Polumbo

Lodestar is an exuberant floral composition made from a Lockheed Martin Lodestar jet that artist Randy Polumbo scavenged from the Internet. “What frankly was a weapon, today is a provocative canvas upon which viewers can explore their curiosity,” he says. “I am excited about ideas like pollination and propagation and, of course, transformation.” Lodestar aims to inspire, challenge, and perhaps stimulate or activate with its monumental scale, symbolic payload and visual journey of spying from afar and approaching this explosively beautiful and engaging blossom.

The sculpture sits on 10,000-pound legs and a weighted nose that makes a 35-foot triangle. Its tail soars almost 70 feet high, topped with a “saucer,” or pod, conjuring everything from UFOs to roll bars on a hot rod—connecting the extraterrestrial to the extreme terrestrial. The top functions as an observation tower, with a galaxy of revolving planets covered with crystals and hand-silvered mirror, and languorous petals unfolding from the tail. Blooming on the saucer are hand-blown glass flowers that softly illuminate the sculpture at night.

Palm-3 World Station by Simon Vega

Simón Vega’s Third World space station is the largest sculpture in his Tropical Space Proyectos series commenting on the effects of the Cold War in Central America through his ironic and humorous views on the Space Race. Palm-3 World Station represents his interest in catastrophe-escaping space vehicles as well as his concern about who will be left behind. The sculpture, based on the Soviet space station Mir, is 150 feet long, 80 feet wide, and 50 feet tall. It has 30 modules containing all the trappings of shanty towns in his native El Salvador: mini marts, pupuserias, apartments with TVs left on, clothing lines, flickering lights, hissing gas lines, sirens, and people in “happy poverty.” These materials and motifs draw a sharp contrast to the technology of space and punctuate the economic inequality and effects of a polarized society.

Spectrum by NEWSUBSTANCE

NEWSUBSTANCE has created an art installation you enter to experience: a seven-story spectrum of color with an observation deck offering 360-degree views of Coachella and beyond. From the outside, Spectrum appears as an impressive architectural entity. Inside, it’s less about itself and more about your experience: Light, color, and perspective change with every step you take.

“As people venture into our pavilion, they will find peace and serenity,” says creative director Patrick O’Mahony. “It takes down the sound of the festival a few notches and provides a space for reflection.”

Spectrum explores the relationship between light and landscape, the shifting environment it creates, and how it influences those who journey through it. It also captures the beautiful explosions of color as the iconic sunrises and sunsets roll across the landscape. At night, the installation features 31 custom cast colored panels and more than 6,000 feet of LEDs, which illuminate the site and bathe you in color.

Supernova by Roberto Behar & Rosario Marquardt (R&R Studios)

SUPERNOVA is an explosion of light and color that exudes optimism and hope. With origins in the sky, this radiant, polychromatic star contains 12 individual stars, jutting 40 feet in every direction. “It’s extraordinary and fantastic, but a familiar form,” says Roberto Behar and Rosario Marquardt. “It’s a mirage we can touch.”

The artists are interested in public pleasure: By day, SUPERNOVA offers shade and a meeting place—a fantastic, utopian and contemporary American green at Coachella. At night, it transforms into a shining star that changes colors and seduces its viewers. SUPERNOVA is a fantasy that becomes real, a symbol for all that’s possible and a personal memory of your experience at Coachella.