Ricardo Rivera is finally doing exactly what he was meant to do. The results are on display in the North Forest of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

Time Loop by Klip Collective: A Forest Light Experience opened to the public Wednesday and will be on view through Jan. 5. The outdoor exhibit is a nighttime experience along the museum trails formed by a variety of light, sound/music and projection mapping onto sculptures, trees and plants. It includes six, site-responsive immersive installations that were created exclusively for the museum grounds.

“We’re excited to open the North Forest especially after the tornadoes earlier this year,” Public Relations Manager Michelle Moore told guests during a museum staff and press preview Aug. 29.

Klip Collective is an acclaimed studio formed by Rivera that has been producing a variety of these light and sound works for 21 years.

Rivera said he originally wanted to make movies, but found himself primarily using his skills to do visuals at raves in the late ’90s. He stumbled onto the art of projection by happenstance.

Once Rivera had a taste of performative, live video on a large scale, “it whet my appetite for something I had no idea what it was going to be,” he said. That evolved into music-based video installations. Rivera created projection for bands, DJs and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. He also began to collaborate with a lot of choreographers for ballet and other styles of dance for festivals.

“I formed Klip in 2003 because I figured out the technique of projection mapping,” Rivera said.

He formed the company to focus on it. Given that it’s an expensive art to carry out, he set about finding clients.

“As the child of immigrants, I was looking for real work, honest work, if you will.”

He marketed his skills as a way to transform a physical indoor space and approached architects and interior designers first. Projection mapping, Rivera said, is mapping the space through pixels and light.

Each of the sculptures in “Time Loop” are highly mapped, meaning the video-like content on it was designed for its exact shape and had to be aligned properly so the performance could play out.

During Klip’s first year, they transformed hotel lobbies. In 2004, the company landed a car client, which opened the door to other big advertising accounts like Nike and Target.

Klip Collective moved projection mapping outdoors nearly 10 years ago. Conducting projections in the elements presents many more challenges and difficulties than his previous projects, but is also more rewarding, Rivera said.

“Projection housings are everywhere, everything’s got to be waterproofed, everything is 10 times harder, but it’s beautiful,” he said. “Something about being in nature, creating this type of art in natural environment, it has this magical element to it, collaborate with Mother Nature and embed within the landscape, using technology that has no business being out here.”

“Endless Overture,” the first piece encountered in the experience, is a light landscape that illuminates a broad ravine. Rivera said when he first saw that particular area, he immediately thought of it as a great canvas and couldn’t wait to see what Klip Collective could do with it.

“Light rakes along the surface of the forest, tracing the landscape’s vast sprawl,” the work’s description reads. “The sweeping bands of light wash over trees and foliage, emphasizing its current beauty.”

Rivera said working with the Crystal Bridges team was refreshing because of the creative license they gave him. Not once did they ask to see his work while it was still in progress. He said he’s been working his whole career to get that kind of latitude.

When assessing a space for a potential installation or series of installations, Rivera said he communes with the space and makes instantaneous assessments, basing the coming exhibit on what speaks to him right away.

Tornado damage came after his initial walk through of Crystal Bridges grounds, and while it required some adaptation, he believes it changed the show for the better by clearing out spaces he didn’t initially expect to be clear.

Rivera hopes that the six works will guide visitors to appreciate being in the present, since many of them are based on being in a certain place at a certain time, to “think about your time and what it means.”

April Wallace is Features Editor and can be reached by email at awallace@nwaonline.com or on X @NWAApril.