Making Art in Black Rock City
A look at the wild works Kickstarter creators are making for Burning Man this year.
Every year, Burning Man sets Nevada’s Black Rock Desert ablaze, filling the once-desolate drylands with life, art, and festivities that unite people from around the globe. But before the annual pilgrimage to what will temporarily become Black Rock City begins, there are months of arduous preparation as artists construct their installations for the week-long gathering of community and creativity.
These installations — whether a climbing tower soaring twenty-five feet above the desert or an alien bar that’s crash-landed on Earth — are often inherently linked to Burning Man’s creation of an intentional community. While for some the artist-audience interaction begins in the desert, for many it starts earlier, during this build.
We’ve rounded up a few projects to showcase the eclectic and collaborative works that artists are aiming to bring to the playa this year. Check them out.
ICARUS
Returning to Burning Man for its third voyage, ICARUS is a mutated U.S. Air Force hydraulic lift that transports passengers to another dimension. Equipped with a 14,000-watt IMAX sound system, onboard DJ, and nightclub lighting, the musical spacecraft transforms into a fourteen-foot-high desert dance floor to melt away space travelers’ inhibitions.
Hybycozo
This iridescent light installation is a geometric wonderland designed to make you “feel a connection between your heart and your mind.” It’s powered by the infinite improbability of kindness.
Celestial Mechanica
The team behind Celestial Mechanica, an eighteen-foot kinetic steel sculpture of the solar system, is ready to make few upgrades so the sculpture can go back into orbit at Burning Man 2016.
Awakening
Re:engineering harnesses the human body’s strongest features with large steel sculptures and DaVinci’s camera obscura. Skeletal hands and eyes emerge from the sand, representing what “separates [life] from the rest of the universe: the ability to observe the world around us and manifest change in that world.”
Enunciation
A quiet respite during the day that’s filled with splashes of color at night, Enunciation cocoons burners in a field of light. Changed by each and every touch, the light refracts to express how each visitor engages with it.
Renaixement
Pink Intruder, the creators of Renaixement, will bring a piece of the centuries-old Spanish tradition of Las Fallas — a week-long celebration of the arrival of spring, replete with fireworks and flames — to Black Rock City with a monument, or falla, constructed of cardboard and mosaic tiles.
The Mary Ellen Carter
For over seven years, this floating desert oasis weathered countless dust storms and sailed hundreds across the playa. After its Idahoan crew hung up their gear, a new crew took over the Mary Ellen Carter—and they’re striving to update the nautical art-car so it can make its next voyage.
And there’s more…
Roshanai is a light and sound experience that will illuminate the beauty of Islamic design, enveloping burners in percussive melodies and swirls of geometric patterns as they look up at the night sky.
The Rock Star Librarian is creating a thirty-two-page catalog of the musical performances taking place at Burning Man, encouraging “happy smiles and dusty dancing out on the playa.”
The Temple is an annual tradition and spiritual refuge. Renowned sculptor David Best hopes to return to the playa to create an intricate wooden temple surrounded by a walled-in courtyard—a sacred space for remembering, introspection, and grieving.
Find more Burning Man projects right over here.
Interested in learning more about what goes into taking an installation to Burning Man? We hosted a Creator Hangout with the folks behind Hybycozo.
Editorial support by Yangsin Lau-Vazquez.
Special thanks to Alex Hudson.
