Bree Castillo

Photographed by Lance Gerber There is something inherently beautiful about desert flora–not just in its shape or color or scent, but in its insistence on blooming against harsh conditions. At this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, London-based architect, designer, and AR-K-C founder Kyriakos Chatziparaskevas translates that resilience into “Starry Eyes,” a field of towering forms drawn by geometric rhythms of the golden barrel cactus.

Photographed by Lance Gerber For the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Public Art Company, led by Raffi Leher, reflects on the duality of purpose and intention through The Los Angeles Design Group’s “Visage Brut” that found home on the Empire Polo Club grounds this year. The structure asks a deceptively simple question: Is meaning defined by what something is made of, or by how it is perceived in a given moment?

All clothing, shoes, and accessories by GUCCI. “Everyone is worried about boys your age…should we be?" I ask Nettspend, newly 19 and folded into the couch beside me. He doesn't answer right away, instead taking a moment to exhale a slow-blooming cumulonimbus that briefly softens the room.