“Pillars of Palm Springs” is the latest art installation to hit the desert! Unveiled earlier this month on World Art Day, the large-scale work consists of six pieces, each created by a different artist in honor of the city’s core tenants of creativity, serenity, equality, diversity, civility and community. Unique but beautifully tied together, the sculptures can be found dotted along the Tahquitz Canyon Way median between South Civic Drive and Sunrise Way, just east of downtown Palm Springs. Those hoping for an even more in-depth artistic experience can also hit up three additional textual installations in the same vicinity, all of which are chronicled below.
XO, Lindsay
Switzerland-born sculptor Roger Reutimann looked to the contouring of a 1959 Cadillac as inspiration for this fanciful piece, which he calls “Cadillactus.” Representing creativity, the artist utilized the shaping of the classic auto’s streamlined tail fins to form the metallic branches of the towering work, playfully saluting the desert’s longtime love affair with car culture and whimsical design.
This one-ton steel sculpture was created by local neo-surrealistic artist Anne Faith Nicholls to showcase the city’s longstanding roles as an oasis, providing water, sustenance and beauty to its many denizens. Fashioned with sheets representing waves, the piece also serves as an important reminder to conserve our most delicate resources for future generations.
Best known for his designs involving street signs, multi-media artist Scott Froschauer crafted this splashy pillar out of bright rainbow-colored rods capped with a ring of neon letters spelling out the word “equality.” Situated just outside the main entrance to Palm Springs International Airport, the work acts as a warm and inclusive greeting to all who enter the city.
To shape this piece, artist Bernard Stanley Hoyes replicated the framework of DNA, highlighting the concept that despite humankind’s many differences, we are all one, molded of the same basic elements. The two hummingbirds that top the double helix, symbolizing procreation, are a nod to a sister sculpture Hoyes created in his native Jamaica honoring the country’s motto, “Out of many, one people.”
A collaboration by Kate Jessup and Celeste Cooning, this work incorporates the fabled inverted arches of E. Stewart Williams’ 1961 Coachella Valley Savings & Loan building and the floral patterns of plants native to the area. Illustrating a harmony or “civility” of nature and architecture, “this form consists of 50% negative space and 50% steel,” Jessup explains, with “one half resolute and one half open to suggestion.”
Comprised of 52 porcelain enamel arrow-shaped road signs representing the city’s 52 different neighborhood groups, this pillar was designed by sculptural text artist Michael Daniel Birnberg, aka MIDABI. Standing 15 feet, the piece seamlessly illustrates the beautiful truth that, in Palm Springs, community can be found everywhere.
Displayed outside Ernest Coffee (1101 N. Palm Canyon Dr.), this purple ombre work, which utilizes negative space to spell out “WOW,” is a definitive statement piece! Meant to elicit a childlike feeling of wonderment and drive its viewers to a more present state, the textural sculpture acts as a poignant reminder of the need for mindfulness to anyone grabbing their daily cup of joe.
Tucked in the courtyard on the east side of the Desert Art Center (550 N. Palm Canyon Dr.), the idea behind this orange-hued monolith, which proclaims “Moment, Movement, Change,” is explained by MIDABI as such, “Change is nature’s singular moment and continuous movement; eternal and unyielding.” Indeed, the only constant is change, as they say!
Originally displayed in New York’s Union Square Park, this piece was relocated several times before making its way to its current home outside of the Palm Springs Art Museum (101 N. Museum Dr.) in December 2023. Playing on the dualities of shadow and light, positive and negative space, nothing and everything, “The Only Other” provides thought-provoking commentary in picturesque form.