“Powers That Be” – Coachella Valley Music Festival

“The Powers That Be” 2001@ Coachella Valley Music Festival

A one time installation that took 4 weeks of preparation and a week to assemble on site at the polo fields in Indio, California. Conceived at the time as a metaphor to Power after the the botched 2000 election, the fall of the Dot-Com, and significant power grabs in California related to the energy crisis and price gouging by Enron. My statement was one of excess in creating and effort to complete such an installation. I literally packed my entire studio Facility3 into a Penske truck and drove to Indio with my friend Scott. After a week of assembling what we had brought and being joined by others in the final days, a sprawling 60′ ft. diameter construction had taken form. It contained as its main structure a pyramid made from glass to represent the fragile nature of this hierarchy in America. The piece was a beautiful sprawling tower with delicately laid precision, it contained auto parts, technology, theatrical lights and symbols of power in every sense. We lit it up and powered televisions theatrical lights. We brought, tires and flags and refrigerator doors and computers. The sad, but most important thing to happen in the process was ironically what we had not planned on. Abuse of Power! When the police pressured the promoter of the event to remove the installation or the Festival would not be allowed to open.