At the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival over the weekend, festivalgoers were treated to a wonderful experience with interactive large-scale art installations.  For a couple of days people were awed by a giant yellow and black striped caterpillar which transformed on Sunday into a magnificent giant blue butterfly with rainbow wings that flapped as it greeted fans.

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According to Patrick Shearn, president of Poetic Kinetics, an art collective that creates larger-than-life mobile art installations each year for Coachella, the caterpillar and butterfly, titled,  "Papilio Merraculous" depict "mental transformation," that likens the end product to a "labor of love."

Shearn continued to say that their motivation as a group is to make people happy as they consider audience interaction an important aspect of their work.   In this work, people were asked to help move the huge butterfly by carrying its legs around the festival grounds.

The Poetic Kinetics' butterfly is remarkable in its attention to detail with multitudes of meticulously colored sequins that make up the legs, the color of which turn from blue to black as one rubs it downwards or upwards.

Other art works for selfie addicts at the festival were "A Festo Vitae," a marble sculpture by designers Nikki and Simon Haas that depicts a Portuguese Marble Cat also dubbed as the "Coachella Party God."  Then there is  "The Corporate Headquarters," a performance art by artists Vanessa Bonet and Derek Doublin where actors were dressed up as hippos wearing suits who acted wildly in an office-like environment.

Another work is the "Chrono Chromatic," a structure made up of many colorful bars hooked at the top and provided ample shade.  At night, the bars lit up in various hues of pink, purple, blue and green. 

"Big Horn Palace, " created by artists Shrine and Joel Dean Stockhill is a metal temple-like structure that allowed festival guests to sit under its umbrella shaped roof.  Dotted with various metal adornments, up close the objects turned out to be actually cans and bottles that have been spray-painted. Placed on each end of the installation are two big horn sheep made of metal.

Other works were "Twelve Shades of Pass.Ani," by artist Keith Greco, "Praxis," by artists Ben Zamora and John Zamora, "The Earth Mover," by artist Christian Ristow, a veteran of the festival's art scene, and "Balloon Chain," by Robert Bose, the festival favorite that utilized a string of balloons.

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival known as Coachella or the Coachella Festival, is an annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Inland Empire's Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert.  The event showcases popular and established musicians, as well as emerging artists and artist groups featuring various types of music as well as art installations and sculpture.

TagsCoachella, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Papilio Merraculous, Giant Butterfly