phillip k smith III mirrors reflection field for coachella

phillip k smith III mirrors reflection field for coachella
all photos by lance gerber / courtesy of royale projects : contemporary art

set within the mountainous landscape of indio, california, american artist phillip k. smith III has situated ‘reflection field’ — his largest light installation to date — at the 2014 coachella music festival, where it has been experienced by more than 200,000 people over the course of two weeks. the monumental pieces echo smith’s prior lightwork ‘lucid stead’ — previously featured by designboom here — which intersected color theory, optics, perception, scale, and technology. the new work consists of five, large-scale freestanding volumes, constructed from glowing luminescence and mirrored surfaces.

the freestanding volumes are formed by glowing luminescence and mirrored surfaces

the series of objects span a diameter of 100 feet across the vast plain; by day, the monolithic reflective masses are prisms of earth and sky, wrapped by the surrounding greenery and environment, by night, they transform into expansive fields of color that blend and layer through echoes of reflection. spaces become simultaneously infinite and finite, while hues push and pull, saturating and dissolving the surroundings and periphery into pure color.

situated at the coachella music festival

colored light is projected from within the mirrored masses

set within the california landscape

mirroring the sunset

palm trees and the desert landscape are reflected onto the surface of the volumes

layers upon layers of mirrors

illuminated color at night

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