What do you get when you mix cacti with a surreal light and music experience? Magic.
Already otherworldly, the fantastic forms of succulents and towering saguaros get a special treatment in Klip Collective’s “Electric Desert” exhibition, opening October 12 at the Desert Botanical Garden. As part of an Influencer Preview Night, I was treated to an early peek at the interactive evening experience.
Seven sites along the Garden’s trails now burst with mesmerizing light displays, carefully mapped over individual plants. Snaking cacti arms wriggle with patterns. Prickly pincushions shimmer with rainbows. And a hillside of saguaros sings as “Desert Chorale,” where light undulates from blowing winds to dune-like waves.
The experience draws visitors along from the garden entrance, where barrel cacti ringed at the base with LED halos flash gently in time to ambient music. The Cactus and Succulent Gallery is my particular favorite. The surreal colors and light patterns mimic something of an undersea encounter—if coral reefs were powered by magic mushrooms.
Viewed either from the Sonoran Desert Nature Loop Trail or the Ullman Terrace, the powerful “Desert Choral” sequence is captivating for minutes on end. I sat and watched from a patio chair as the hillside swam with patterns and striped the tops of organ pipe cacti in the field around us. The chasing lights invoked a desert storm and the movements of a snake, and I got a bit emotional listening to the inspiring, often playful electronic soundtrack.
Artists Klip Collective bring another fantastic nighttime transformation to the Desert Botanical Garden, where Bruce Munro once graced the same paths with immersive light displays (I visited three times). For anyone who’s strolled the garden during the day, it’s just another excuse to come back after hours. You can even buy a combination ticket for a daytime visit and admission to Electric Desert for $40. Electric Desert only tickets range from $24.95-$29.95 for adults. The exhibit is open through May 12, 2019.