Artist Phillip K. Smith III installed "0/90/120," a site-specific work of 11 light panels, inside the historic William F. Cody house in Palm Springs, California. The installation, which ran through May, used reflective and illuminated volumes to transform the Desert Modern architect's family home, drawing the surrounding Sonoran Desert landscape indoors. Smith, who studied architecture at RISD and is known for desert-based works like "Lucid Stead" (2013) and "Reflection Field" at Coachella, created the piece to capture the rapid light changes at sunset and warp perceptions of space.
The installation matters because it represents Smith's first major intervention into domestic architecture, continuing the Light and Space tradition of compressing natural phenomena into singular objects. By engaging with Cody's iconic 1952 residence—now embedded in a dense Palm Springs neighborhood—Smith reconnects the house to its original sense of desert isolation. The work also underscores how contemporary artists are reinterpreting modernist landmarks, using light and reflection to blur boundaries between interior and exterior, past and present.