Photography: Lance Gerber / Desert X
Desert X is gearing up for its fifth edition in the Coachella Valley this spring. Ahead of the festivities, land artist Agnes Denes has installed a new site-specific version of her Living Pyramid sculpture, planted with desert flora.
Denes, who was born in Hungary in 1931, lives and works in New York. She has been exploring the pyramid form for half a century through her evocative land art.
Her Living Pyramid 2024 sculpture was commissioned for the upcoming Desert X biennial and is installed at the Sunnylands Center & Gardens in Rancho Mirage, where it will be on public view for the next six months. The tiered pyramid sculpture tapers to an elongated peak and is planted with cacti and indigenous plants on each level, reflecting the flora of the surrounding desert environment.
‘While the pyramids are based on mathematics and thus achieve a kind of perfection, they contain all the imperfections they are dealing with or are representing and visualising,’ says Denes.
Denes first unveiled her Living Pyramid concept in 2015 at the Socrates Sculpture Park in New York City, where it was planted with East Coast grasses. This version has a similarly local focus and will blossom, grow, and go to seed in slow step with the lifecycle of flora in the Coachella Valley.
Desert X kicks off in the Coachella Valley from 8 March to 11 May 2025. See the Sunnylands website for visiting hours for the artwork, which is on show now.
