Tourists and locals are gawking at the new public art installation in front of the Rowan Hotel in Palm Springs.

Carol and Ray Ginsberg, visit the desert every year from Canada. They are admiring the newly redeveloped downtown, that now houses a stainless steel sculpture by German artist Julian Voss-Andreae, titled “Isabelle”.

Ray said, “You have to walk around it to really appreciate it, it’s gone through a lot of trouble I think, it is an ingenious little thing.”

The sculpture creates a visual illusion that is very much part of Andreae’s art aesthetic. Strips of stainless steel are engineered to shape a silhouette of a woman posing on her side, but a glance on another angle, the statue disappears.

Carol said, “First of all you could see right through it, which is kind of interesting for a sculpture.”

Andreae mixes art with science, to create a piece of art that almost challenges the laws of physics, and Isabelle is not the exception.

Eddie Bakira and Tony Perez are Palm Springs locals and they are walking around downtown to catch a glimpse of the sculpture.

Bakira said, “To see such thing in Palm Springs, it is pretty awesome.”

They have lived in the desert for 10 years, and they said they are noticing new visitors flocking the revitalized downtown.

“All the new tourists coming to town, that this stuff brings to our city, I kind of really enjoy that,” Perez said. “Younger people here, instead of the old retired people, not to say old is bad.”

The Palm Springs city officials said there are more art installations on their way as part of their redeveloped downtown project. But art installations or not, Palm Springs will continue to attract tourists, well because, “The good weather the most important reason we’re here,” Carol said.

New Downtown Palm Springs Sculpture is a Showstopper