2019 Art Installations

All artworks in these listings will be presented by these artists on the open playa in Black Rock City. Honoraria Art H has been awarded a grant by Burning Man Project. Registered Art includes all other projects that have registered for placement on the open playa in BRC. You can learn more about the BRC Art program here.

2019 Black Rock City Art

"Hoʻo ua." To cause rain.

by: Kate Kuaimoku
from: Oakland, CA
year: 2019

The word “Ho’o ua” comes from the name “to cause rain.” This human-scaled work simulates a soundscape of rain within an enclosed environment in the style of a raffle ticket drum. The center of the piece will be separated in a separate “cage” in which participant(s) will climb inside the cage and stay seated while at least one to three persons must crank the handle to the right to put the plastic balls within the drum in motion. Once in motion this will allow the participant on the throne to experience not only a rain on the roof, but a “rain through the roof” sensory experience.

"I Love You"

by: WhIsBe
from: Brooklyn, NY
year: 2019

“I LOVE YOU” will be a large light installation.

Taking a look at this year’s theme, this neon sculpture can serve as a playful counterpart, with its engaging interactivity and constantly changing meaning, it provokes *Metamorphosis.

Using a subversive formula of colliding seemingly innocent images with meaningful messages, my subtle alterations to known designs irrevocably disrupt their meaning. This juxtaposition between the nostalgic and sinister has become a hallmark of my body of work—in presenting attractive images that viewers initially feel safe absorbing, I cleverly and strategically encourage them to examine their own critique of their feelings and emotions related to present day culture along with the principles of Black Rock City.

#Drelinquency

by: YouChoose and the Tautology Arts Collective
from: Lagos, Nigeria and Seattle, WA
year: 2019

#Drelinquency is a play on the words Frequency and Delinquency

Frequencies are the building blocks of all we see and hear. Some frequencies can be dialled into by #Drelinquency’s radio scanner.

Delinquency has a negative connotation, but is that unacceptable? Is the act of listening in on transmissions not intended for someone an act of delinquency?

One can find #Drelinquency by listening out for the radio transmissions and by spotting the sound responsive LED lighting.

#Slonik

by: Mikhail Tsaturyan
from: Moscow, Russia
year: 2019

It’s a 75 ft fluorescent elephant which will be hard to miss on playa.

#Slonik is designed to draw attention to elephant mistreatment in Africa and Asia. We should not let the elephants go extinct. If you take one element away from the ecosystem it will affect all the other creatures including humans themselves!

Slonik — transliteration from Cyrillic — is the diminutive form of a Russian word that means elephant.

#TILT

by: Tomas Neumann
from: Santa Ana, CA
year: 2019

Inspired by surreal photographs by French artist Philippe Ramette, TILT allows you to see the world differently. Not only participants who interact with TILT by stepping onto the balcony shift their perspective. Even observers are intuitively and playfully urged to act to make sense of contradictory visuals. What is real and what is fake? What does it take to change reality?

'O'

by: Matthew Rockwell and The Cyrcle Collective
from: Kathmandu, Nepal
year: 2019

‘O’ is an interactive exploration of the cyclical rhythms of ritual and rebirth, and a physical demonstration of the power of intention and art to drive social change. A 10 meter tall Nepali prayer wheel stands in the center, flanked by a skeletal ouroboros, representing the ancient motif of the snake eating its tail in eternal revolutions of death and rebirth. By the circular rotation of the prayer wheel, participants can collectively create energy out of pure intention and perceive its effect on the world.

In both form and content of ‘O’, in the materials and techniques used, and every step of the piece’s existence, ‘O’ is an embodiment of cyclical sustainability. From every vantage point, the piece turns metaphor into tangible reality.

1up

by: Christina Anthony
from: Los Angeles, CA
year: 2019

1up pays homage to the 8bit world of 80s classic gaming and lets you step inside of your very own life sized video game. Will it be 1up or game over? There’s no cheat codes on this level.

A Place for Anything

by: Ruten
from: Tokyo, Japan
year: 2019

In a Zen, strong messages and powerful physical art are not always necessary.
We create “Empty Field” into a place where all burners can freely express and interact with each other. It’s a truly free place without any subject where people’s personalities, sources and expressions blend together. There are many things that make people realize their origin. Because it’s an unthinkable “Empty” and a place where everything can change, the participants may be aware of a new aspect of themselves.

A Slice of Heaven

by: Chris Anderson
from: New York, NY
year: 2019

“A Slice of Heaven” transforms a familiar section of our local stellar neighborhood into a curious streetscape, shrinking 486 light-years of space down to 40 feet of walkable, lamp-lit passage. The collections of stars that we know as the Big and Little Dipper are uniquely visible in our tiny sliver of the universe – seen from any other perspective, they take on totally different shapes. By observing the stars from alternative positions, we are invited to think about our place in the universe and how the familiar night sky hides a depth we do not often contemplate.

About Time

by: Gordon Hoople
from: San Diego, CA
year: 2019

About Time explores the ways in which humanity has kept time. The sculpture incorporates themes of time keeping elements throughout the ages. The piece asks what is time? How do the ways we keep time change our perceptions of reality? Is playa time the only real time? Primarily of wood construction, the sculpture will stand ~20 ft tall and consist of several interactive elements (such as a rotating hourglass) that invite visitors to engage with questions about time. A fully functional sundial by day will evoke thoughts of ancient time keeping. At night it will transform to a digital timepiece and be illuminated by thousands of LEDs. The sculpture will be burned in place as a testament to the fleeting nature of time.

Advice Booth

by: Mrs. and Mrs. Orion and Company
from: Anchorage, AK
year: 2019

Advice Booth is visually familiar as it is derived from the garden variety “friendly advice” embedded within American culture (just ask Charlie Brown), which makes this piece approachable. Simple wood construction and small stature can disguise it in the dust, making it a fun find to those who spot it. It is a social platform that invites role playing and creativity, and can expose unseen vulnerabilities to participants awaiting their first “customer.”

Airfield for walking in the clouds

by: Weld Queen
from: Moscow, Russia
year: 2019

“Airfield for walking in the clouds” is a model of a fantasy airfield with ten dream-liners “Armchairs for walking in the clouds.”
The project is a large-scale interactive installation where people will be sitting and swinging in the “Armchairs for walking in the clouds” where they will be able to “break away” from the ground and be closer to their dreams. “Airfield for walking in the clouds” is a place where people can go on their own journey into the depths of their inner space.

Alternity

by: Roy (TheWiz) Trammell
from: Portland, OR
year: 2019

Reality is not a straight line. It is a branching tree of alternatives where everything that can happen does. At each point of uncertainty, two parallel universes diverge. Representing the diversity of possible futures, it traces how our experiences may pass through them as each consciousness traverses a unique path through this…
Alternity.

Andromeda Reimagined

by: Playa Muses
from: Bay Area, CA
year: 2019

In myth, Andromeda earned the god’s respect by her earthly deeds and was rewarded with celestial immortality as a constellation. We reimagine the Andromeda Myth, evolving it from a classic male hero focus to a strong feminine and collaborative paradigm.

This art piece brings Andromeda back to earth, and asks, should we aspire to immortality? Can our fleeting actions ultimately stack up to monumental outcomes?

The piece, built by first-time playa artists, consists of a 26 ft spire, with ornate star-patterned walls. It shines like a Moroccan lantern at night, and beckons viewers to rest in a plush interior, seek shade, duck a windstorm. It incubates change. People come to reflect on their course, and to feel inspired to set their sights higher.

Aphrodite's Shrine

by: Two Dogs and a Bird
from: Vancouver, Canada
year: 2019

From a distance, one sees a low-lit mound reminiscent of early fortified dwellings, but made beautiful with art evoking the sea. The hidden inner sanctum draws curious Burners towards a contemplative space.
Aphrodite’s Shrine is a sex positive space that invites participants to reflect on different aspects of love and how they relate to themselves and their sense of spirituality.

Apocalyptic Portal

by: GSPOT
from: El Mundo
year: 2019

The apocalyptic portal will permit movement back and forth between the non-apocalyptic world and the apocalyptic world to Black Rock Citizens.

Art Car Bus Stops

by: Art car bus Stops
from: Los Angeles, CA and Denver, CO
year: 2019

Art car bus stops are a spontaneous autonomous municipal service. We are a community made open effort providing several artisnal benches.
“The Disco Stop” bench and shade with 20″ disco ball and mood lighting.
“Janus geometric stop” sit 5 across either side providing shade all day.
“The Time Machine Stop” a bench with a visible depository of items from past, present, & possible futures.
“The G Spot” nested Gs form a 3D G with vibration.
“The Light Gets Through” a single person. isolation stop contrasting darkness and hope.
“Mustaba/Mustaba” House of the dead shade and playa stone bench.
“Metamorphosis Wave” playa hexagons emerge and transform into shimmering shade.
“Hell Stop” in the deepest deep apocalyptic remains form this bench at the edge.

Art Car Show and Tell

by: Greg Barron / DMV
from: Alameda, CA
year: 2019

This is a pop-up Mutant Vehicle show using 20 or more collaborating mutant vehicles a day. Have you ever wondered what it took to make your favorite Mutant Vehicle? How it got to the playa? What was the builder’s inspiration? What IS that thing? How can I build one? This is the chance for participants to ask those questions and more of the people that have done it and know what to do.

The show will move around the inner playa to various locations for 4 days over the course of the week. Locations can be near esplanade, the keyholes, major art pieces or camps. The intent is to add diversity to the city and reach different areas of the city by rotating the locations on each of the 4 days of the event the show will be held on.

As One

by: Jack Chatterton
from: Seattle, WA
year: 2019

As One is an interactive flame installation in the form of a biofeedback-driven mindfulness game for two. When players’ heart rates synchronize – when their hearts beat as one – the flame effect goes off, pulsing their shared heartbeat into the sky in burning propane. Thus, the piece’s mission is to bring two people together, whether they’re out on a playa date, or new friends, or complete strangers from the crowd.

As You Wish

by: Nicole Ashton, Kindred Art and Folk Institute
from: Truckee, CA
year: 2019

Reminiscent of an Arabian minaret in a mirage beckoning you to enter. Once inside, the swirling points of light create a mystical chamber for your wishes. The magical lamp turning with myriad points of light dancing across the desert. Inside, the light carries your wishes up to the stars.

Awakening

by: Philip DePoala
from: Saugerties, NY
year: 2019

Human beings may eventually create machines that become exponentially more “intelligent” than ourselves. This will mark new thresholds for the human being and civilization. We will be reborn as we reach new technological panoramas. With the development of AI, we could emerge from the process very different from our former selves. When the machines we create influence and condition our human experience, they are also influencing us. Machines are helping us move towards fantastic scenarios through which we will be changed. Awakening is a tall steel automan at 14′ holding a humanoid infant.

Back to the Future: Dystopia about the Space Dogs

by: Firecup&Victory of the Surrial
from: Moscow, Russia; Los Angeles, CA
year: 2019

The installation is composed of six sphere-shaped fire pits. Five spheres telling the spectacular cosmic legend are located around the magnificent fire pit flower.
The installation “Back to the Future: Dystopia about the Space Dogs” brings us back to the golden age of sci-fi when faith in the omnipotent human mind and spirit was boundless. The design of the art object uses the works of Soviet artists from science fiction novels. The heroes of their works – conquerors of outer space, extraterrestrial landscapes, as well as intelligent and faithful to mankind robots, comrades-in-arms.

Banana Chrysalis

by: Camp Orange
from: San Francisco, CA
year: 2019

Who says insect life doesn’t exist on playa? Inspired by this year’s Metamorphoses theme, banana butterflies are manifesting inside the Banana Chrysalis — a 12′, interactive banana sculpture with peels that spiral open as you turn the ship’s wheel. Inside, a paper and acrylic cocoon blazes with the heart of an environmentally aware, ever-evolving LED light show celebrating the playful, colorful journey of life.

BarterDog

by: BarterDog
from: Mammoth Lakes, CA
year: 2019

You’re exploring the open playa finding Amazing works of Art, your nostrils catch a whiff of the comforting aroma, Sizzling Hot Dogs. You keep following your senses and suddenly it appears! A Shaded Bicycle powered Cart with a small BBQ full of Sizzling Hot Dogs, a group of Burners is around it enjoying the works of art they have created out of the Bun & Wiener canvas, piled with sauerkraut onions mustard ketchup and relish, how could this be? Some burners search for years and never encounter Hot Dog bliss, believing it only to be a myth. Others fulfill their hot dog destiny Burn after Burn. The hard part is finding BarterDog, the Cart never returns to the same spot out on the open playa. “Enjoy the Journey” )'(

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beeholder

by: Susan White aka Pinky, from Camp Tsunami
from: Los Angeles, CA
year: 2019

Hey Honey, Pinky has been beezy making a large Honey Bee! Bee stands about six feet tall, is about ten feet long and holds a special eyeball in front of himself. Upon looking into the eye…. you will find much Beauty within yourself.

Bee Dance

by: Andrea Greenlees, Andy Tibbetts, and Josh Haywood
from: London, UK & Reno, NV
year: 2019

Bee Dance is a whimsical and inviting art installation in the form of two gigantic Dancing Bees, their legs entwined and their heads touching in a bee kiss. It celebrates one of the most fascinating examples of communication in the natural world — when forager bees return from their exploratory flights and perform the Bee Dance for the other bees, carrying out specific routines in order to communicate the distance and direction of pollen, nectar and water from the hive.

Bee Dance is a strong climbable structure that Burners can clamber over and cling to, just as pollen clings to a bee. The Bees are bronze in colour, but on their dancing feet they wear gleaming copper ballet shoes with copper ribbons. The Bees are transformed into dancers.

BLACK ROCK ADVENTURES BUS STOP!

by: Ironsides
from: Las Vegas, NV
year: 2019

This not only looks like a bus stop, it is a BUS STOP! We will swing by and offer you a Playa Tour usually at 9am and 7pm daily, room and weather permitting! Tour times are posted in the BUS STOP! Our touring rig is accessible for the mobility challenged, and all else. It’s more than a STOP! It’s a way to GO!

We encourage riders and transportation to stop by as well and connect, whenever.

Black Rock City

by: Jan Allen Nichols
from: Laguna Beach, CA
year: 2019

This piece of art is small, under 100 pounds, 36 inches long, 21 inches high, and 16 inches deep. The base is a large concrete rock painted black. A painted plywood head band covers the widest part of the rock. There are flames painted on the lower part of the plywood band that blend into a cityscape. The top has an arrow at the highest point.

The piece will be pointing at City Center. There will be 6 solar lights around the piece for lighting.

Black Rock City Playa Wish Toll Booth

by: Steve Landis
from: Brooklyn, NY
year: 2019

In the middle of nowhere, there’s always a gate to pass to get through yourself. The Black Rock Playa Wish Toll Booth allows participants, within the physical confine of a wooden working toll booth station with moveable toll booth arm, to enter voluntarily. But the same person may not exit because past this toll booth, everything will be different.

Dimes are not accepted.

Black Rock Observatory

by: Black Rock Observatory Crew
from: Los Angeles, CA
year: 2019

Black Rock Observatory is a portal to the wonders of the cosmos and has been bringing the project to Burning Man since 2014, engaging thousands of participants with views of planets, galaxies and nebulae, sharing meteorites and giving talks on a multitude of scientific and artistic topics. Kids’ Night at the Observatory is a particular favorite, where future burners go to get their universe on. Dozens of kids hear about engaging topics and receive real meteorites.

Black Rock Superior Court

by: Brian Sullivan
from: Emeryville, CA
year: 2019

Black Rock Superior Court is the most trusted institution on the playa for handling disputes, marital issues, criminal citations, and frivolous judgement actions since 2018. It has come to be seen as a vital part of civic life on the playa by at least 200 people, maybe more. Bring your issues before our magistrate and we will settle that issue once and for all! PuppyBoy not doing the dishes?! Sue him, literally. JankySue being all janky? Bring her to court! Yes, we will adjudicate the living hell out of your dispute and send you all away worse for the wear.

Black Rock Superior Court; because justice ain’t fair, baby.

BORiNG Sign

by: Camp BORiNG
from: Mill Valley, CA
year: 2019

During a week where sensory overload is par for the course and the most mundane hour on the playa is more interesting than most people’s other 358 days of the year, the BORiNG sign represents the irony implicit in the Burning Man event itself. It is a reminder to both not take ourselves too seriously and also to ALWAYS look around us — you never know what you may miss if you don’t. The hand-painted letters B-O-R-I-N-G are fabricated from reclaimed sheet metal and discarded retail sign parts, and lit by 300 ten-watt incandescent bulbs and securely attached to a welded base with wheels. BRC citizens interact with the piece by creating a moveable, groovable dance party with us as we roll the sign from art piece to art piece, burn to burn.

Bottled Up Genie

by: Bottled Up Genie
from: Oakland, CA
year: 2019

The project is an elaborate giant wooden bottle with a captive Genie perched inside on a tree. Genie is embedded in our consciousness as a creative, intelligent, mythological, guardian spirit. His role is to make dreams come true allowing something to happen that can’t be stopped. At the base of the genie’s feet is a giant Book of Wishes. Participants use this to write out their dreams. Its a place to acknowledge wishes as affirmations of how we imagine our best selves into being. Genie allows us to have no restrictions on our requests. Dreams are not just your own, they are connected with everyone else. It’s about nuances of communication. My hope is that participants will connect with Genie to affirm their best selves into being.

Brown Chakra Project

by: Kyle Eding
from: Earth
year: 2019

After years of asceticism, I became enlightened with the epiphytic discovery a chakra previously unknown. I have been revolutionizing peoples’ lives with my knowledge of the Brown Chakra. A flowing Brown Chakra is the wellspring from which all life manifests. My followers and I hope to smear the message across the globe. The Brown Chakra Project is sculpture celebrating cathartic release through metamorphosis and whimsy in the transitory. Join us in relieving yourselves with the sculpture’s immolation. More fire in B.M. 2019!

Burning Tits!

by: Shrek
from: Reno, NV
year: 2019

It’s Fast It’s Dangerous IT IS Burning Tits!
We give naughty prizes.
We start play after sunset (9pm ish) till nobody wants to play or day light happens!

Just don’t touch the carnies!!!

BYTE

by: Jason Blanda
from: Guttenberg, NJ
year: 2019

B.Ÿ.T.E. (Burners for Ÿntelligent Technology Emancipation) consists of two monolithic, anthropomorphic microchips representing the very first sentient robots to be freed from slavery, Chip and Terra.

Chip and Terra were first set free to play on the dusty dance floor of deep playa at Black Rock City in 2018. Their virgin year home was one of exploration as they adapted to their newly found liberation.

This year, they hope to enter the imago stage of their evolution and return home to embrace the magical whimsy, radical self expression and symbiotic love as they emerge from their chrysalis and blossom into the colorful, loveable creatures they were always meant to embody. They hope to fully complete their Metamorphoses. 

Cat-holic

by: Yaron Budowski
from: Digital Nomad, World
year: 2019

A sanctuary for all cat worshippers. All feline denominations accepted here.

Catharsis

by: Olena Owens
from: Seattle, WA
year: 2019

Catharsis is the highest state of mind and soul. In order to get to that state one needs to go through internal metamorphosis.

Centered

by: Darrell E. Ansted
from: Boulder, CO
year: 2019

“Centered” is an interactive day and night sculpture serving as a gathering space for participants to discover, climb, bike through, and play with light. Centered is seven 7’2″ tall rings arranged in a line stretching over 60-feet long. Each ring represents one of the seven chakras, each of which represent different aspects of our life – the psychological, the physical, the energetic, and the spiritual. Each ring is painted and decorated with hidden words and meanings for the participant to discover. Centered will give the participant a unique opportunity to interact with this ancient Eastern tradition..

Chakra Khan

by: Sara von Roenn
from: Louisville, KY
year: 2019

Chakra Khan is an 8 foot, sound healing meditation experience to connect you to your roots and your higher power.

Chapel of the Chimes

by: Infinity Gathered
from: Washington, D.C.
year: 2019

You happen upon this beautiful and curvaceous hand-cut building of wood and steel chimes. The love and care that went into each cut is visable. The Chapel of the Chimes awaits you.

The love poured into the structure makes it a perfect place to have a ceremony with loved ones. There is an arch inside and platform to stand. Share your vows, commitments, and devotion here.

You may also simply take shelter here from the hot sun and relax to the sound of the wind breezing through, giving the wind a different voice and experience. The chimes harmonize and sing you a song you’ve not yet heard.

Come and learn of the playa-adjacent origins of the structure! It has quite a story to share. Come early, it burns before the end of the event!

Chroma Commons

by: Dusty Nation, Lead Artist Cameron Anne Mason
from: Seattle, WA
year: 2019

In a temporary city in a constant state of metamorphosis, Chroma Commons creates a sense of place using ephemeral materials: Silk, color, and air. Beckoning from across the playa, a circle of banners dyed along the color wheel creates a kinetic silken environment and provides ever-changing views of the city from a dynamic interior.

In the center is the Prism, a triangular tower with a sound installation using noise-reducing technology to create a sanctuary of quiet. Benches provide places to gather, rest, and commune with other Burners.

At night, the spectrum of color expands. Images are rear-projected onto a band of acrylic panels at the top of the Prism, color-changing lighting bathes the banners, and ambient light glows around seating.

Chromata

by: Bryan Ressler
from: Seattle, WA
year: 2019

Chromata is a 8 ft x 4 ft light-emitting artwork that has been described by some viewers as “an abstract painting that continuously repaints itself.” Chromata is an interactive, generative work that algorithmically creates a continuously-changing, mesmerizing field of light.

Sit and watch a while or use the interaction kiosk to change Chromata’s symmetry and colors to your liking, all without interrupting its constantly evolving organic tableau.

Chronomorphic

by: Vulfie Munson
from: San Diego, CA
year: 2019

Chronomorphic is a representation of a Great Plains Indian burial platform. On it will lay a figure of a swaddled human body. An illuminated cityscape will emerge from the body’s chest. At night, the city will be illuminated from within and light will also shine through a Medicine Wheel fashioned into the body’s back and projected onto the playa beneath the piece.

The platform and uprights will be made to look like rough tree trunks and branches, with the juxtaposed modern city in glass and metal emerging from the body.

Circle of Friends Project

by: Nova and the Circle of Friends Camp
from: Sacramento, CA
year: 2019

Circle of Friends is a large-scale interactive sculpture that will ultimately include 6 humanoid figures at 20′ tall — arranged in a circle (arms connected) facing a middle fire pit where visitors can interact with each other, fire effects, and sculpture lighting (e.g. a heart-rate monitor that lights the glass hearts). In 2019, we will be doing 2 or 3 figures with no fire due to funding limitations. It is our plan moving forward to build more figures each year until the circle is complete!

Clay in Hand - Make and Take

by: KoKo Rebecca Reagan Boatman
from: Dallas, TX
year: 2019

This is a mobile clay workshop and gallery on the playa. We can be found by our large bike flags and are in public gathering areas – plazas, the man, and/or center camp every afternoon. This is radical creativity – each artist can create what they please from a small amount of clay. Tutors will have impressions of leaves available if they want to follow the theme of metamorphosis and make a small cocoon or chrysalis. A small note or relic could be inserted inside the form.

Cocoonap

by: Artmisto
from: Dnipro, Ukraine
year: 2019

Cocoonap is a combination of two words: cocoon and nap. Installation-transformer, which smoothly changes its appearance and tells a small parable. This is a visualization of a metaphorical dream about the changing and cyclical nature of life, about what is its basis. Birth, flourishing, development, dissolution in eternity.

The 3×4 meter installation will be made of wood, vividly decorated with LED-stripes for a spectacular show during the night, and the surface of the cocoon itself will be covered with stencils that will project metaphorical illustrations onto the surface of the desert.

Colordance

by: Adam Demuri
from: Boulder, CO
year: 2019

Colordance is an interactive, collaborative installation piece that encourages participants to play with form and motion. It uses many colored lights pointed at a screen to create fascinating shadows of many colors. The shadows that participants cast amplify their movements in brilliant technicolor, creating entrancing patterns.

Cone Down

by: Looking Up Arts
from: San Francisco, CA
year: 2019

Cone Down is a whimsical acknowledgment of life’s little indignities. This fallen ice cream cone has a steel frame, with vacuum formed polycarbonate panels lit with LEDs. Cone down is climbable with a viewing deck on top. Inside of the ice cream scoop will be a padded ‘chill’ area which will be a delightful respite during the day. The LEDs will illuminate the scoop from the inside and out, so at night the ‘chill’ area will be a beautiful glowing room as you watch folks ascend and descend this tipped-over tasty treat. Ice cream to be served.

Connection Station

by: Hug Slut (Al Boehnlein)
from: Ypsilanti, MI
year: 2019

The connection station is a place to rest, swing, share, connect, and make new friends, especially if you are feeling “lonely in the crowd”. It is a modified porch swing with colorful graphics encouraging passersby to have a seat and make a new friend. It is hoped that it will encourage participants at BRC to make new friends and connections.

Connection to Birth

by: Connection to Birth Team
from: Yokohama, Japan
year: 2019

This art expresses the life force and mystery just before human birth.

For 5000 years it has been the motif of the Japanese-made flame-type earthenware. It expresses life that is connected with our ancestors.

The central mirror expresses the mystery of the birth of life as the body of God.

There are two sticks on the ground with a penis motif. They touch at night.

Connections

by: Oxana Belka
from: Chicago, IL
year: 2019

We will bring ten mannequins. Building on the foundation of the human form, each mannequin will be uniquely painted and designed and will represent the spectrum of human emotions.

As a whole, the art piece will represent the human experience. We live in a symbiotic relationship where we influence and affect change in one another. Through creativity, expression, and vulnerability, we are able to transform those around us, and they in turn transform us.

At night, the mannequins will also be illuminated. The illumination will breathe life and further animate these forms. To the observer, the mannequins will become representative of not only the burning man experience but also a transformative journey, fueled by our bonds.

CONTAINERISATION

by: Clayton Blake
from: Australia
year: 2019

CONTAINERISATION explores the concept of “containment” and the impact of unlawful detention of asylum seekers. By definition the act of containment means keeping something harmful under control or within limits. So why do we continue to incarcerate those that pose no threat and are most vulnerable. Our refugee crisis is at epidemic proportions and our solution is to corral innocent people into inhospitable refugee camps. “CONTAINERISATION” is a comment on this monumental crisis and highlights the plight of millions of people who are forcibly displaced world wide because of persecution, conflict, violence and human rights violations. Collectively we all need to do more!

Cryspurgery

by: Bryan Argabrite/ Sculptor Mixed Media No Constraints
from: Santa Cruz, CA
year: 2019

The four tall DNA-looking spirals standing in a row are real life modifiers where your choices mean something. Moving parts represent infinite traits and finite choices for what traits can be included or must be left out.

Add, subtract, or remove to make life, as if promoting a biological metamorphosis of an “ideal ” being. Parts are labeled to reflect aspects of personality and vitality.

We need to make careful hard choices about how we use modern technology that alters life without adversely damaging life. This is our opportunity to challenge our ability to do the right thing.

Cube of Song

by: Z. M. Anand
from: Denver, CO
year: 2019

The Cube of Song is a large play-along xylophone. To play, four friends or strangers gather around the cube. On each side are 6 steel bars of different lengths — 24 bars total. One note at a time, LEDs cue a person to strike that note with a mallet. Together, a song is played – no musical experience needed!

In between songs, the Cube of Song is an LED edifice. Over 1500 individual LEDs dazzle onlookers and light up the neighborhood.

Deep Playa Shrine #88

by: BiL
from: Cascadia, Pacific Northwest
year: 2019

Deep Playa Shrine #88 tends to show up randomly; if you look for it too hard you may not find it.

ohmmmmmmmmm

Deep Tea

by: Order of the Bird Whisper
from: Los Angeles, CA
year: 2019

Deep Tea provides sanctuary and warmth for those who go deep. A shining tea kettle appears every night next to the trash fence, a treasure ready for those who wander the playa and their minds. Frozen seekers of beauty and connection find a moment of heat, tea and camaraderie in the comfort of this ethereal art.

Desert Bloom

by: Kindle Collective
from: Austin, TX
year: 2019

A tall, delicate flower stands alone on the playa, ready to bloom and transform beyond the tightly closed bud. In the flower’s center, a woman emerges, arms stretched as she dances on the playa. This transformation represents the current women’s movement, morphing from what society sees as beautiful yet fragile into a figure standing tall, strong, and proud.

Desertspaces

by: Eric Cole + Eric Anastas
from: San Francisco, CA
year: 2019

Shade by day, light by night.
Recycled 2x4s to make it right.

Dimensional Dreams

by: Becca Priddy
from: Portland, OR
year: 2019

Dimensional Dreams is a set of four roughly 1ft cubed shadow boxes. Each shadow box is inspired by a different artist’s personal vision of relaxation and rejuvenation. Artists have submitted drawings or photographs that have been translated into a 3D landscape. The project is inspired by a collective feeling of fast-paced stressful life and the lack of time for mindfulness and sanctuary.

Dimensional Dreams is constructed of a wood frame with acrylic layers illuminated by colorful LEDs. Each layer is laser cut semi-translucent cast-acrylic and between each layer of acrylic an individual strip of neopixels would illuminate that layer.

Each box is affixed to conduit piping that is 48″ tall, which makes Dimensional Dreams ADA accessible.

Discard

by: Kirk Kunihiro
from: Cypress, CA
year: 2019

Welcome to the Trash Fence.

What brings you to the edge? Are you feeling on edge? On what are you wasting your mental energy? Are you endlessly turning over events in your mind for answers which never fully materialize?

The vast, empty playa stretches out in front of you. To some, an unforgiving wasteland. To others, Eden.

Here you can ponder your relationship to your brain and its content. What is useful, what is waste?

That’s up to you to decide.

Diver UP

by: Victor Spinelli
from: Ibiza, Spain
year: 2019

Diver UP is a 24-foot-tall metal sculpture whose form incorporates an old commercial diving helmet and a topless woman (feminine goddess) — Man Made in contrast to Mother Earth. Metamorphosis is in the air. This message is leading her to take off this controlled helmet by society, mankind and history. It opens us up to a new world of equality and the divine feminine goddess celebrating womenkind and mankind in unison — a beautiful new world that invites/allows/accepts/celebrates everyone for their individuality as part of the ONE. She will seem to be emerging from the playa floor starting from her torso like a mirage.

Divine Feminine Warrior Goddess - Reclaiming Your Crown

by: Sandra O'Brien & Mark Mennie
from: Carlsbad, CA
year: 2019

Divine Feminine Warrior Goddess – Reclaiming Your Crown (DFWG) represents 4 facets of a woman’s essence. DFWG consists of 4 female torso forms. Each is decorated uniquely to represent the artist’s vision of Divine, Feminine, Warrior and Goddess. The torsos act as “guards” to the Pyramid, which contains a raised Throne in the center. In keeping with the metamorphosis theme, it asks the viewer to sit on the Throne and reflect on how they have grown and evolved to empower and express these traits of DFWG within themselves. The Throne is facing westward in alignment with a view of the Man, the mountains and the setting sun. It is designed to help facilitate the participant to embrace her self-worth and reclaim her power as the Goddess she is.

Divine Moments in Bloom

by: The Art Collectif of Lotus Ranch
from: Dallas, TX
year: 2019

The Art Collectif of Lotus Ranch brings a new installation to the playa this year, Divine Moments in Bloom. This interactive piece is created to focus on the NOW moment. We include a lotus theme to remind participants of being born into a world of struggles and opening up to or reaching spiritual enlightenment through blossoming.

DreamWEaver

by: Friends of a Feather
from: Reno/Tahoe, NV and Western Canada
year: 2019

Dream WEaver is Intended to display non-physical concepts in physical form. To show the invisible connection between our minds and our hands. To show that our hands can be the guide to bring our dreams into light. The dreamweaver is not one, but many beings working together to create something beyond what any single human can accomplish on their own.

Eden 2100

by: Polina Polskikh
from: Moscow, Russia
year: 2019

Abstract metal skeleton of a whale, as a monument of nature and biological species affected by the direct human exposure.

Eden2100 reveals an uncertain future for us, a time when we will have to accept the fact that “we have no other planet”. Reflecting all the “instability” of our knowledge of the future, this an attempt to remind people that the future depends on our actions now.

When creating a project, the aim is to draw people’s attention to the environmental imbalance, mostly created by human activities. Eden2100 is a guide to environmental issues. It reveals a global catastrophe, its symptoms.

Eden2100 is a therapy for our “ecotrauma” and a call to create a better future for humanity and our planet.

El Diabla

by: Crimson Rose and Iron Monkeys
from: Seattle, WA
year: 2019

On the first Monday of the event, Crimson Rose extracts a flame from the Sun to light a fire in El Diabla, a special cauldron located in Center Camp. For the flame to continue burning it must be stoked, disturbed, and kept alive throughout the entire week. We encourage all those that encounter El Diabla to help keep this flame alive.

Electric Dandelions

by: Abram Santa Cruz
from: Long Beach, CA
year: 2019

The Electric Dandelions are 24 ft tall dandelion sculptures that double as fireworks at night. The dandelion bulbs come to life at night as the LED animations take hold and mesmerize you with their bright and intense light show. Sit down and enjoy the lights dance and see the beautifully geometrically designed metal and acrylic sculptures.

Electric Plantern

by: Lanterns Shmanterns
from: San Francisco, CA
year: 2019

Electric Plantern has a large lantern, inspired by traditional paper lanterns, emerging from the playa as the flower of a hybrid organic-digital plant. The pyramid base of the plant resembles a circuit board trunk with digital roots into the playa and large leaves sprouting from the top. Wooden benches surround the Plantern to create a communal gathering space. Analog controls are interactive to create various colorful and dynamic light patterns on the flowering lantern. Electric Plantern offers participants a place of refuge to discover, dream, or meet.

elevation

by: michael christian
from: Berkeley, CA
year: 2019

Emergence - The Metamorphoses Portal

by: Mason Thorpe Calhoun
from: Washington, D.C.
year: 2019

The Metamorphoses Portal is a 12 foot diameter metal ring with sound responsive LEDs on the inner circumference. Stepping through the portal represents crossing a symbolic threshold which represents something different for everyone. The threshold may represent a barrier the participant has in their life, something holding them back, or a vision of their future self they struggle to move into. One side of the portal represents your past life, and the other side of the portal represents your future life. The portal offers participants the opportunity to cross that threshold and emerge out the other side anew.

ETZNAB, temple of mirrors

by: VAA
from: Mexico City, Mexico
year: 2019

ETZNAB design core is about reflection as a ceremonial act. We invite the citizens to discover themselves in the natural surroundings of Black Rock City, to connect with the sky, the mountains, and everything the landscape has to offer. Visitors are welcome to use this sacred space on their own: meditating or intuitively executing any sacramental activity, becoming the shamans of their own personal rituals.

eye of metamorphosis

by: music vizards
from: San Luis Obispo, CA
year: 2019

Metamorphosis is our projection on us self. We provide a unique experience at night with the Eye of Metamorphosis: A body-projection art installation creating an individual metamorphosis to be projected on the moving or dancing body. Butterflies, which morph into watchful eyes reminding us that wishful ideals come with the cost of exposition; or flowers, which burn away from the inside, or fire that freezes to ice. A mirror at the bottom of the eye lets participants experience their own metamorphosis.

Flaming Butt (formerly ButtVote)

by: by Princess
from: NYC, NY
year: 2019

Ashes to Ashes, aka Flaming Butt, is a large metal sculpture of a cigarette butt that serves as a recycling station for cigarette waste. The purpose of this work is to bring awareness to the harmful environmental effects of cigarette butts, our planet’s most littered item, and provide BRC citizens with creative solutions to leave no trace. The solid unchanging nature of the sculpture serves as a reminder of cigarette butts’ non-biodegradable nature.

Flaming Pachinko Machine

by: Neal Milch
from: New York, NY
year: 2019

The Flaming Pachinko Machine returns! Imagine a Japanese pachinko (vertical pinball) machine blown up to Godzilla size, with 50 flaming softball-size steel balls cascading down 35 feet in a flaming cacophony society of burning comets. If you missed it in 2013, this is your last chance! Flaming Pachinko Machine’s ethos is to keep fire burning on playa, with an element of the random and unexpected which is a core joy of the Burn. The fiery comet trails bounce and clatter against the night sky in mesmerizing patterns you won’t soon forget. Anticipate music, performance, and a surprise or two during our Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday night performances.

Flamingo Roost

by: GARY GUNDERSON and the Disciples Of The Dust
from: Issaquah, WA
year: 2019

Flamingo Roost is your place to sit a spell and roost with a flamboyance of lawn flamingoes. It is a 16 foot tall vision of pinkness supported by a tripodal base. The central column is ringed by a bench which seat 6 and is adorned with flamingo art. There will be a carousel of flamingos that rotates overhead. The structure will be topped by a large translucent globe lit from within. This piece is intended to be a place to talk with other people, or enjoy the solitude, while being entertained with a kinetic pinkness.

Flying Ramen Monster

by: Forie
from: Tokyo, Japan
year: 2019

Flying Ramen Monster (FRM) is a wind sculpture that swims in the air freely as the wind blows. It changes its shape, color and behaviors as it interacts with the environment. You are welcome to contemplate its surprising nature of this ever-changing life form that could be metaphorical and an eye sore at the same time.

FOMO Streamer

by: The Uplifting
from: Tel Aviv, Israel
year: 2019

In our time of neverending supply and nonstop temptations, the term FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) is getting used more and more frequently. Our FOMO Streamer will let you have a small tease of the FOMO people outside the playa are having. You will watch random videos from people that couldn’t participate at Burning Man, videos recorded just for you lucky bastards.

It will be funny, it will be sad, it will be unexpected.

Fraktel

by: Light Warrior Collective
from: Los Angeles, CA
year: 2019

Fraktel appears as if it was unearthed from the ground, a giant fossil, holding ancient wisdom inside. The meticulously woven branches give shape to a perfect fractal, Fibonacci Spiral. The entrance is cavernous, airy and bright, as light pours in between the loosely woven branches. Venturing deeper within you realize that the light seems to be dissipating. It’s more constricted and dense. The initial appearance is a bright white light at the end of the tunnel and an entrance into the heavenly light-filled center. In the center, the room is immersed in a brilliant white light. Upon exit, a side door opens to yet another layer, with an immensely expansive celestial wonderland surrounded by the cosmos.

Free Wifi

by: Playa Tech Repair
from: Grass Valley, CA
year: 2019

Burners tired of going to the Orgy dome and exchanging hand jobs for internet passwords or frustrated that Instagram photos won’t upload can finally find relief.

Burning Man has lacked reliable free WiFi for too long.

The Burning Man Free WiFi Oasis and Device Uncharging Station provides a reliable and relieving connection for Burners and their devices. Illuminated at night and visible during the day, the 12-foot beacon and bench seat serve as a helpful landmark when navigation apps stop working. Rainbow lights indicate that the signal is strong.

Playa Tech Repair is dedicated to re-connecting Burners with what matters most.

Frequency of Hue

by: Michael "Zee" Weinstock in association with Looking Up Arts Foundation
from: San Francisco, CA
year: 2019

Experience a life-sized interactive mood ring displayed across five vertical LED panels that change color with the touch of your palm. “Frequency of Hue” is a wondrous array of dazzling lights that titillates the visual senses when participants hold the hands of the sculpture. Upon arrival to the piece the panels have hands reaching out from both the near and far end, welcoming passersby to hold. Built into each panel are windows allowing one participant to see the other through the sculpture, both holding hands, their moods create a unique display on the panels with touch enhanced sensors. Participants ponder if we are all unique or if we can find someone who is experiencing something in a similar way?

From There to Here & Here to There

by: Teri Bevelacqua
from: Olympia, WA
year: 2019

Reminiscent of a bygone era of interstate highways… From There to Here & Here to There, is a playa specific ever changing large road sign, crafted to resemble a farm stand type billboard. Closer examination reveals a large scale painting made up of ten painted panels. The paintings, encaustic mixed media, are layers of images, marks and paint creating an ever changing image of journeys, a map. This map will consider time and experiences as additional orienting tools. The images are both personal and universal and like memories you think you have neatly tucked away, they emerge and fade in the strangest ways.

FUCK YOUR PERM

by: Rebecca Mitchell
from: Los Angeles, CA
year: 2019

All of you damn hippies cannot keep track of your god damn perms. You partied too damn hard last night and now the trash fence is full of your disgusting perms. These perms have feelings, needs, and names and you’ve just abandoned them without care. We’d like the trash fence to be perm free by end of week.

So hold onto your perms people, because if not, FUCK your burn, and FUCK YOUR PERM!

This sight to see brought to you by the power of imagination, absurdity, snark and sense of humor.

Galactic Mutant Snug Den

by: Echo and Art Car Bus Stop
from: Denver, CO
year: 2019

The Galactic Mutant Snug Den (GMSD) will help foster curiosity in the citizens of Black Rock and allow them to come inside and seek shelter from the wind or the heat. Once inside you will experience soft squish on the floor and a beautiful design of hanging fabric. The perfect place to take a nap, or meet a new person and create a brand new out-of-this-world connection. This is a safe place for our community to come take a break and watch the playa go by. Outside look for the bright blue temple with an alien on the side and at night watch the top flash with light and the poles twist with rainbows.
The GMSD… the new snug place!

Galactica Metamorphica

by: Metamorphica Crew
from: San Francisco, CA & Truckee, CA
year: 2019

A personal-size Black Hole! A swooping conical symmetric shape rises from the playa, its lower areas enswirled by a mesh-work of yellows, oranges, reds & black. The top is a dense black peak – the zone beyond the event horizon! By ducking in one side, then standing up, a participant’s head is inside the Black Hole! No escape!!
On closer look the structure is covered with what? Crochet! But made from what?! It’s Tarn! (T-shirts repurposed into a thick yarn.)
It highlights the recently-released first visual image of a Black Hole, elucidated largely by a female scientist. The shape represents the dramatic deformation of space-time by a Black Hole. Who knew T-shirts could metamorphose into a visualization of a cosmic singularity?!

Garden of Bright Children

by: gudenky@gmail.com
from: Kiev, Ukraine
year: 2019

‘The Garden of the Bright Children’ is a group of fire ceramic figures. They are children with oil candles burning inside. When one comes closer to admire them, the children give off light. When one turns to them to get some warmth in the night, the children raise their hands to him/her.

There are two ways to interact with the art. The first one implies that everyone can visit our ##Darkart camp to create his/her own child, widening the range of the figures every day. The second way is to interact on playa with the previously prepared children. One may wander across the garden of the children, examining them and warming his/her hands and touching them.

Through our art we would love to bring joy and warmth to people’s lives.

germination

by: Seth Johnson
from: Carson City, NV
year: 2019

The sculpture represents the metamorphosis of a plant’s germination, from a seed to a mature tree as a visual cultural reaction to the environment and humanity. Epitomizing the current Anthropocene time period relating to our culture as in which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. The project reflects this year’s theme “Metamorphoses” in a stylized biological and humanity theme. This metamorphosis will be represented in the exterior form of the tree sculpture juxtaposed by the internally images/art, the natural germination process and the representation of human influenced form, shape, image, texture and aesthetic.

Giant Harmonic Pendulum

by: Gyuszi Suto
from: Hillsboro, OR
year: 2019

Harmonic Pendulum of 12 RGB LED illuminated transparent bowling balls.

The installation will about 10′ tall.

A set of electromagnets releases the pendulums simultaneously. The starter person lights a fast burning cannon fuse that slithers through the dust of the playa, then runs up the frame and triggers an electronic release signal. Each pendulum will have a slightly different swinging period. They will all start together and then slowly deviate and exhibit sine-wave patterns of various shapes and eventually coming back into synchronization 3-4 minutes later. Each translucent ball is illuminated from the inside with color LEDs in various light patterns, as well as the entire structure will also have its own LED show.

Grow

by: Ania Zboron
from: Las Vegas, NV
year: 2019

“Grow” is a Hindu-inspired deep-playa meditation platform intended to provide a peaceful space for burners to retune their energy, reflect on their playa experiences and observe the city. Made of stained wood, “Grow” features colorful Chakra symbols, a crown, gold accents and handmade chimes and lanterns.

Happy Birthday! (MEGA CAKE)

by: Thom White and Piece of Cake Productions
from: Norfolk, VA
year: 2019

Mirroring the ephemeral nature of the customary birthday cake – a whimsical work of art made to be immediately consumed in celebration – the MEGA CAKE is made, shared with all of the citizens of Black Rock City, and then consumed by fire. On a city-wide scale, it stands as a joyful beacon to the metamorphoses we experience throughout our lifetimes. Interior stairs provide access to elevated decks where participants can take in a sweeping 365° view of the beautiful playa. A slide to the ground acts as a playful symbol of one’s birth anew. On a universal scale, the cake serves as a marker in time — a point to deliberately consider the significance of each being and celebrate a deeper understanding of self and community.

Head Maze

by: Matthew Schultz and The Pier
from: Reno, NV
year: 2019

The Head Maze is a purposeful juxtapositions of two forms, a peaceful meditative reflection and our inevitable struggle with the nature of cognition; a monolithic mind caught in time between multiple selves. The head towers four stories over the playa floor, encased in mulberry paper and epoxy modeled after the work of Yoshio Ikezaki. The head rests in repose while its left hand claws at its mind fighting to reveal a crystalline stained glass structure akin to the “Space Whale” inside.

A series of hidden doors in the mouth, wrists and head open into a four story, 18 room maze. Each modular room creates a unique space dedicated to the nature of our minds, our struggles with being and the weird and fanciful process of dreaming.

Hot Hand Luke

by: Hydrocarbon Collective
from: San Francisco, CA
year: 2019

Hot Hand Luke is an experimental experience in dangerous art. It is similar to traditional skeeball, except the BALLS ARE ON FIRE. Participants will have the opportunity to safely handle a flaming ball of fire and try to score points, with score kept on a flaming scoreboard. Fun for the whole family*!

*Only players over 18 are allowed to participate.

Human Harmony Gallery

by: Cynthia Fleischmann
from: Miami, FL
year: 2019

Harmony Gallery is a 8ft structure exhibiting ‘bodypaintography’, ‘Ashes to Ashes; Dust to Dust’, ‘red hands’ & ‘Harmony Strand’ by Cynthia Fleischmann. The visual connections between humans, environments & cities are inspired by nature, animals & visions of peace. Red Hands tell stories of humanity, emphasizing the power humans have to create and spread love or destroy. The Gallery offers a unique art-photography experience along with a one-time art happening event called ‘Ashes to Ashes; Dust to Dust.’ On Thursday at 3pm the gallery serves as a meeting point for participants to unite naked, covered with dust and painted red hands forming a ‘human harmony strand’ for unity, harmony & respect towards each other, the environment, and animals.

Hybrot

by: Mel Meow
from: Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia & Las Vegas, NV
year: 2019

Hybrot is a 7 ft luminous chrysalis containing an interactive hybrid-being trying to connect with with the outside world. It represents our evolutionary turning point, technological transformation and how we are connected with nature and the world around and beyond us. One hand reaches up to touch the wall of the chrysalis and when the viewer reciprocates and mirrors their hand on the outer wall each finger turns on lights to different parts of the body that reveal sculptural elements symbolizing our connection to the earth, life, death, connection to each other, and our intellectual evolution driven by technology.

Illumicone

by: Ross Butler and Coneheads Local 208
from: Boise, ID
year: 2019

Illumicone is light art driven by participation and interaction. A softly glowing presence draws participants inside where they encounter strange mechanical widgets. As they play with the widgets, patterns of light move in response, surrounding the participants with a dazzling color spectacle of their own creation.

Illumicone is 19 feet tall at its center and 38 feet across at its base. Cables descending from the top of the cone carry 4800 individually controlled LEDs. Inside the cone are interactive, mechanical “widgets.” Participants manipulate the widgets, causing patterns of light to dance across the LEDs. Some widgets drive colored lines and rings while others create sparkles or showers of color droplets.

IN CASE: A UKE

by: Justin Lange, Dorna Lange, Caitlin Kilroy
from: Brooklyn, NY
year: 2019

What if our public infrastructure was built to respond to the emotional needs and inner crises of its citizens? Distributed throughout the playa are a few highly visible red cabinets modeled and finished in the style of pre-war, cast-iron emergency call boxes that provide immediate ukulele access.

INFUNDIBLOOM

by: Loose Leaf Collective
from: Austin, TX
year: 2019

This immersive macro view upon a morphing bubble field makes you see through the eyes of a hallucinating bee colony. Its kinetic elements are activated by hooking up your bike and will enable you to make the bubble-like structures bloom and bounce.

Interdimensional Enchantment

by: Interdimensional Enchantment Artist Collective, Main Artist: Sarah Sekula
from: San Rafael, CA
year: 2019

This magical tree, illuminated by hundreds of lights, channels the etherial wonders of the world. Nested in a welcoming space on playa, Interdimensional Enchantment opens a portal into the world of fairytale, comfort, and peace.

Island of Lost Buoys

by: Lillian Heyward and The Island of Lost Buoys, a Create Change Project
from: Bluffton, SC
year: 2019

On the playa is an Island, a wooden tree dominates the center made of recycled pallets, crates and drift wood. Leaves of sculpted plastic bottles rustle in the wind. Strung from a branch is a hammock made of fishing net attached to a ocean buoy marooned on the beach. Hanging from the branches are sea buoys and balls providing a place to write names or leave a message to those who will come after.

Hanging from branches are bamboo wind chimes that softly clatter in the breeze. It is an island, a refuge, a place of calm and childhood in the stormy seas of life. It appears out of the playa as a mirage, the fantasy playground of youth. Discarded materials transform into an oasis, as our adult lives transform back to childhood. Bangarang!

Jhana Kamma

by: Meesh & Mikey B/Snoodmen
from: Phoenix, AZ
year: 2019

Originally dubbed the “Octagon Lounge”, this piece pays homage to the buddhist Stupa, which is used for meditation and commemoration of important relics. The structure features a pyramid at its center with four lines stretching from the tip to the ground. Citizens of Black Rock City will be able to attach ribbons with intentions & wishes written on them to these lines, the intention of which will blow over the the city. On the Sunday these lines, with their accumulated ribbons, will be transported to the Temple as their final resting place, their karma burned and sent up into the aether.

JoyCat 2019

by: Love/Hate Los Angeles
from: Burbank, CA
year: 2019

JoyCat 2019 is intended to be a vehicle for the metamorphosis of fear into joy for every individual who participates in her creation and interacts with her; whether in-person or via the internet. This playful and interactive kitten stands 21 feet tall and represents the untamed creature of joy within us all. She is also an homage to internet cats who have brought immeasurable joy to the masses since the dawn of the www.
JoyCat 2019 also represents lasting joy through the practice of detachment. With celebration and fanfare this kitty will burn to the ground, freeing us from the notion that joy comes from anything but within.

Kaleidescape

by: Kaleidescape Experience
from: St. George, UT
year: 2019

Kaleidescape will change your perspective! This is a set of kaleidoscopes that will allow direct viewing and imaging of the people and places of Burning Man, but seen in a warped and changed way. Kaleidescape will show true metamorphosis through personal and literal reflection.

Kaleidoscope Kandeo

by: Deniz Nicole, Krista An & Michael Hartmann
from: Ventura, CA
year: 2019

Come play with Kaleidoscope Kandeo! A 20 foot tall rainbow casting kaleidoscope for you to spin and gaze upon!!!

Keys to the Universe

by: Joe Dauer
from: Concord, CA
year: 2019

“Keys to The Universe” is an interactive installation that invites participants to experience the transformation of analog input from a scorched and decaying piano into whimsical digital output (LED lights). Every key on this piano has been mapped to generate specific light patterns that chase their way out of the piano and into the air. Visitors can control their experience through how they interact; the more progressions and cords that are played, the more complex the light patterns become.

KIUMAKO – sound shape structure

by: Kunst-Technik-Einheit
from: Berlin & Weimar, Germany
year: 2019

Reminding some of an ice cream cone or a lobster in a shell, KIUMAKO is halfway a straight geometrical structure from the outside, that metamorphoses at its highest point into a jungle of fabric tentacles, dancing to a seemingly unknown song.
The answer waits inside though, where everyone’s acoustic expression contributes to form a flow of sounds and melodies accompanied by an immersive shape-shifting panorama wall. The cone shell certainly has a life of its own, yet this life is also directly derived from the participants input inside, thus crossing the borders between sound and visual shape and the new field of algorithmic generated music and the most essential instrument of mankind – the human voice.

Klein's Playground

by: Klein's Playground Collective
from: Berkeley, CA
year: 2019

Klein’s Playground is a rendition of a Klein bottle made with 2×4 wood. The base is a bulb that converges to a tube at the top. This tube folds over and intersects the base to form a non-orientable surface. The structure is completely climbable. Participants are able relax inside the base or explore other interactive experiences at higher levels.

Koro Loko

by: Emily Nicolosi
from: Salt Lake City, UT
year: 2019

A billowing heart made of wire netting filled with hundreds of tiny dichroic plexi squares refracts the spectra of light in all directions. Benches under lightposts encircling the heart provide a place to hunker, commune and daydream. Like the exuberance of colors reflected by this heart, always-present and ever-shifting, this heart conjures the thousands of expressions and materializations of love prospected in the human experience.

La Escuelita

by: El NiNo & the Parliament Art Crew
from: Los Angeles, CA
year: 2019

We’re the LA ESCUELITA (Small Classroom) team, a friendly and helpful group of Burners from different backgrounds that strives to teach newcomers and old-comers alike about how to implement the 10 Principles during your Burn and beyond!

In 2017, we brought “MÚCARO”, our wise, woody owl dedicated to teachers everywhere. Inspired by the incidents we witnessed at our installation and the vandalism we heard about from other artists, we realized we needed to be teachers ourselves.

We will do “pop up” performances out and about, with most of our programming taking place on buses or art cars. With a “learning is fun” mindset, we’ll use quizzes, reenactments and songs to impart tips and tricks designed to embed the principles into your very soul.

LEVEL 6: The Eggsistential Crisis of the Gordian Knot

by: Dan Zahn & CAMP BABE
from: Haleiwa, HI
year: 2019

Six eggs will be hidden throughout the playa and within Black Rock City. Discover one, and it will provide clues to find another. Each egg holds a cryptogram that is part of a larger puzzle. Pass this first level, and create your own Playa Player Character (PPC). Fulfill your role by completing a specific mission by the end of the week. But beware, other players are out there and want you out of the game. The largest egg will burn mid-week to reveal a secret sculpture and special clue for later levels.

This is a multi-year interactive project providing the opportunity to unlock deeper layers to Burning Man that you never knew existed! Meet new allies and adversaries while you try to unlock each unique level, and see how deep the rabbit hole goes!

Life Puzzle

by: Mathew Rosenblatt & Studio Rosenblatt
from: Toronto, Ontario, Canada & Los Angeles, CA
year: 2019

Life Puzzle is an 18-foot steel sculpture in the shape of the Ankh symbol, the ancient Egyptian symbol of life. The front and back sides are laser cut into puzzle piece shapes. Riddles are laser cut on both of the sides. Light escapes the cuts and is diffused by plexiglass.

Although the sculpture is meant to be visually appealing, the message of the installation is that life is simple and complicated, it is peaceful and frustrating and it is beautiful and finite.

The sculpture reminds us that time is precious and that each of us has our own beautiful puzzle to solve. We can try to solve it alone or with others. We can enjoy the journey or focus only on the destination. How we attempt solve the puzzle is more important that the solution itself.

Light Pegging

by: Inner Deviance
from: San Francisco, CA
year: 2019

MorphLite MorphBrite is a giant interactive LiteBrite that will allow participants to move around colorful, backlit pegs to create their own art.

Liminal Entanglement

by: Clock Brothers
from: Booneville, CA
year: 2019

The project aims to aesthetically blend symbols and ideas of old world pagan liminal deities, modern society and technology motifs. The structure invites people to consider the boundaries between past and present, as well as the private and public self. It consists of two identical large doors or gateways (roughly 12ft cubes) placed over 800m apart from each other. Participants determine both how and who is able to pass through, stay in or even see the other door.

Lips

by: fnnch
from: San Francisco, CA
year: 2019

Lips is a 20′ wide, 10′ tall, climbable set of red lips. They are intended to be fun, playful, sexy but safe.

Liquid Forest: The Source

by: Richard Wilks
from: Los Angeles, CA
year: 2019

Liquid Forest is a hands-on experience! Citizens spin the jellie and spontaneously discover the sequentially-designed animated zoetrope worlds designed into it. At night, concealed strobe lights illuminate the mirrored zoetrope artwork when the jellies spin! During the day, the zoetrope can be seen without strobe lights using a video app I created called “illumiscope.”

In a literal sense, the project addresses the plastic pollution problem and the issue of preserving natural habitats. In a more spiritual sense, it is about the exploration of form to formlessness: human to BEing, as the sculpture spins and morphs from its static self into dynamic movement, morphing us from a object-based reality to a holistic universal experience.

LOVE

by: Laura Kimpton with Jeff Schomberg
from: Venice, CA and Reno, NV
year: 2019

Rainbow LOVE is celebration of love — reminding us that everyone should have the right to love who they love, and to love themselves.

Love & Protect

by: Dina Fisher
from: Los Angeles, CA
year: 2019

From afar, burners see brightly colored posts decorating the playa. Coming closer, viewers realize the posts align vertically to form a straight line of imagery. Each post contains a “hidden” message visible only when you’re close up. Meaning culminates with the last post, a simple message of hope and love calling us to protect one of mother earth’s most precious gifts — our atmosphere — which shelters and enables life as we know it.

The post’s graphic style pays homage to street artists, while all of the imagery depicts currently endangered species. Look carefully to discover each species’ name in tiny letters. Be inspired to love and protect our forest habitats, which provide shelter for critters while maintaining the air we breath.

Love's Hug

by: Anna Mok
from: Palo Alto & San Francisco, CA
year: 2019

Love’s Hug rises from the desert as a protected space where one can be extrospective and introspective. It will invoke individual and collective reflections and thoughtful dialogue of the love, happiness and joy that humans create for ourselves and each other.

Love’s Hug invites us to take a rest from the chaos, share an embrace, cuddle with others and be engulfed by human love and warmth in this safe place where we can (re)connect with our own hearts and those of others around us. These connections allow us to remember the limitless powers of the human heart and is a catalyst for transformations.

love, earth

by: The love, earth writer collective
from: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
year: 2019

The largest love letter movement ever conceived. The purpose: to inspire a clean climate future by spreading simple commitments to our planet. The art is intended to mobilize citizens to use the power of sending and receiving letters of love from Earth to change, contribute and commit to an environment that we can all be proud of.

The installation will be large enough to be captured from space, and thus our imaginations. In year one, a sky-facing comma will emerge and form a love letter altar. Within the wood structure, a writing area would support a hanging collection of completed letters, growing organically, drawing on attendees to contribute to a siren call from Earth, distributed around the world after the event by the artists.

LoveYou2Death

by: Sally & Dave Peterson, Dusty Vestibule
from: Nevada City, CA
year: 2019

Beautifully mournful as it gently glides across the sands of Black Rock City in noble gothic-ness, the Love You 2 Death Mobile Funeral Parlour offers citizens of Black Rock the opportunity to grieve (or celebrate?) one another’s inevitable demise in the form of living wakes. HearseDesire mobilizes the wakes, black-clad and hearse-like, displaying vintage lanterns, reclaimed organ pipes, weathered church windows, large neon-lit cross beckons participants. Or let the mournful organ tones that sound across the vast playa guide you to her location. When not mobile, living wakes will be held at camp Dusty Vestibule (dustyvestibule.com).

Lumina

by: Sarah Holden
from: Los Angeles, CA
year: 2019

Lumina is a refuge that casts colorful patterns of light and shadow. The piece gives participants a chance to sit and watch colorful lanterns sway in the wind while music boxes fill the space with a nostalgic noise. During the day, it provides shade and some relief from the sun, while at night it provides a soft shadowy beacon or meeting space.

Magnetic Waltz

by: Frankie Myers
from: Berkeley, CA
year: 2019

Magnetic Waltz is a freestanding retrofuturist structure cradling a large white circular glass viewing portal approximately 3 feet in diameter. Magnetic liquid dances and twirls in the portal, choreographed via hidden electronically-controlled magnets. The black fluid provides a clean, crisp contrast against the white glass background. Unlike electronic displays or LEDs, the fluid exhibits subtle three-dimensionality, reflecting sunlight off the surfaces of the liquid in interesting ways. It is physical and real, yet completely magical at the same time. The display showcases several interesting physics: magnetic force and magnetization, fluid mechanics, surface tension and gravity.

Manamorphosis

by: David Posner
from: Charlottesville, VA
year: 2019

Manamorphosis shows an arrangement of 10 figures forming a V shape with typical men and women mannequins morphing into the Burning Man over 5 transformations, becoming brighter as they further morph fully into the Burning Man. The installation poses the question of what it means to become the Burning Man, and thus the excitement that comes with incorporating the 10 Principles into our everyday lives.

Mandala: Natural Form

by: DASTAN
from: Washington, DC
year: 2019

This Mandala – “Natural Form” is a symbol of togetherness and continuity. The circular designs appear across all cultures and backgrounds. It was built to embody the universe, sun, and the rays that it emits, all the way down to the flowers they nourish. It sits behind the Artist as a supporting act, illuminating the more spiritual side of the music we all love. When designing it, the Notre Dame was ablaze with fire, and I thought to turn the sadness of that catastrophe, into something beautiful. Its lines were borrowed from the famous Rose Sud that sits above the entrance. Whenever the Mandala is present it’s meant to create a more sacred space and radiate splendid emotion.

Mementomorium

by: Oleg Muir Lou Goff and Mementomorium Project Team
from: San Jose, CA
year: 2019

Would you dare to lose your senses and spend 10 minutes in the darkness and silence inside a Sensory Deprivation Casket… How would starring in your own symbolic burial change you?

Mementomorium is not about glorifying death, nor is it about downplaying the sadness of the permanent separation with a loved one that death entails. It is about confronting the self, shedding denial and delusions, and revealing life’s true finitude. It is about the path to true happiness, achieved by owning the fear of dying and transforming it into the happiness of living.

Got lucid?

P.S. Vampires may skip the line during daytime hours only!

MerKaBa Portal

by: David Date
from: Santa Cruz, CA
year: 2019

Mer: Light. Ka: Spirit. Ba: Body. MerKaBa is the Light Spirit Body that rotates around all of us. Participants ascend the stairs into the MerKaBa vehicle. They begin to spin, picking up speed as lights pulse to their frequency. At peak energy, they are transported off of Playa and into the Heavens…

metamorphic cinema

by: Safarani Sisters
from: Massachusetts
year: 2019

The Cinema is a 16’L x 16’W x 8’H x 16’D cube. When Burners enter the cinema, the front wall will have a large painting of the desert horizon. The sun will be digitally projected onto the painting.

Experiencing time and being in the moment is defined only by one’s individual presence or thoughts. The sunset and sunrise are showing us time passing by. Beautiful simple moments need to be reflected on in our life, so we don’t lose sight of the little things that effect the mind and heart. People tend to lose sight of the important things to brighten one’s day and unless they are framed in front of the eyes. The cinema is aimed at changing the outlook and people’s imagination responds in a positive way to the little things.

Metamorphic Dis-chord

by: Dustopia Collective
from: Gerlach, NV
year: 2019

Metamorphic Dis-chord is a wind-art installation offering tonal baselines for interactive features including upcycled devices for musical composition. This work adds to transformative deep playa experiences as organic playa sounds merge with human overlays. A source of deep contemplation; material used was salvaged from the Sonoma fires of 2017. Two pieces anchor the exhibit. One: an Aeolean harp, a 14ft tall string instrument based on a concept of ancient Greece and built around a trampoline salvaged from a destroyed family home. Two: a wooden windmill, 12ft tall rigged to chime via wind motion. An adjunct is a canon causing a gong to strike semi-randomly. Smaller sound and wind-active devices are hosted within the circle of the exhibit.

Mikey's Hug Deli

by: Michael 'Mikey' Stubbs
from: Los Angeles, CA
year: 2019

Mikey’s Hug Deli is a yellow delicatessen that has been serving different flavors of hugs on the playa since 2005.
Any person can purchase a hug from the menu for the affordable price of 2 compliments. Any person can work behind the counter and serve hugs. Important note: The compliments are to be given before the hug is rendered (if not, the customer loses out on participation). Thanks!

Mind Murmur

by: Dina Fisher
from: Los Angeles, CA
year: 2019

Beneath a glowing pyramid, a seasoned meditator sits peacefully in lotus position, wearing an EEG (brainwave) headset. As their meditation deepens, the pyramid pulses and responds.

Huge fractal-art blooms, controlled by the meditator’s brainwaves, are projected onto the pyramid walls. A glittering EEG chandelier cascades color and light from the pyramid’s pinnacle down toward the meditator, whose brainwaves control a lush soundscape sampled from animal voices, sacred tunes, synths and murmuring Burner voices.

Mind Murmur shares the power and beauty of meditation, focusing on interconnection, collective experience, and non‐locality of consciousness. It’s sublime to experience while meditating, and while wandering the playa.

Morphoscope

by: India Block Arts
from: Berkeley, CA
year: 2019

Morphoscope is a series of 12 hand-cranked film viewing cabinets, modeled after the original Edison kinetoscope. Turn a crank to activate the device and view one of the short films depicting a metamorphosis, made with love by artists from around the world.

Mortorious

by: Kerry Veenstra and the Mortorious Collective
from: Santa Cruz, CA
year: 2019

If you knew the likely cause of your death, what would you do? Mortorious counts the number of deaths in the United States, by cause, from the opening of the Gate for Burning Man 2019. Digital counters reveal mortality statistics along with 15 “cause-of-death” posters for some common and uncommon ways that we will leave this Earthly realm.

MOST IMPROVED TROPHY

by: Keister Stenson and Mike Murray
from: Venice Beach, CA
year: 2019

A 10′ tall, life-sized trophy juxtaposes against the flat playa, representing the celebration of our achievements. If metamorphosis is about transformation, then Trophy depicts the various recognitions one receives throughout their lives that shapes them into the human beings they’ve become. This trophy symbolizes each and every one of mankind’s accomplishments, big and small.

Murder INC.

by: Murder Inc.
from: San Francisco, CA
year: 2019

Murder Inc.
Seek out the individual crows on the Murder Map located in front to the Illumination Village to find the full murder circling the playa.

Music With Words

by: Philip Chmalts
from: Brooklyn, NY
year: 2019

It is the year 2019, humans have been roaming the Black Rock Desert for days, they have since forgotten any existence of music without a 4 on the floor beat. However, deep in the playa an oasis exists, a place where one can come listen to hundreds of their favorite songs with words.

Burners from all over the world have added their favorite songs with words and under a magnificent sign music with words will ring through the desert for the entire event.

Mycorrhizae (formerly Nursing Log)

by: Casey Bage and Rachel Babener Bage
from: Portland, OR
year: 2019

Mycorrhizae symbolizes relationships among fungus, tree and the fluid decomposition of our world. The piece will emphasize that our world’s natural cycles are delicate, elaborate and incomplete without decomposition. It will spotlight that we too are a part of this balance. The balance is an inevitable contributor to existence and creation. The piece will remind participants that any life will eventually perish, equalizing the cycle and providing the chance for nutrients to be recycled for other life to flourish.

Nausicaä

by: Robert Wicklund
from: Los Angeles, CA
year: 2019

The sculpture Nausicaä is a visual representation of metamorphosis. Drawing inspiration from flowers, insects, & the Phoenix — and incorporating themes of rebirth, breaking free, and self-consciousness, Nausicaä intends to inspire the viewer to self-reflect. The mosaic of mirror shards will both reflect the light of the playa and the broken image of the viewer. The yet to be parted ribbon wings imply the moments before monumental change. The broken chains reveal great effort unfinished. Nausicaä is meant to both incorporate and reflect the ever evolving self.

Negative Energy Receptor

by: Ben Griffith & Jennifer Wester
from: Dallas, TX
year: 2019

Humans alter and transform themselves and the world more than any other known creature — but our power isn’t in the transformations, rather in the belief in transformation.

May this Negative Energy receptor remind you that the strength of humanity lies in our minds and beliefs — beliefs that bring us to the point of action, invention, & creation of means by which negativity can be filtered; bad can be made good again.

Nowhere

by: Alexis Schwerin
from: San Francisco, CA
year: 2019

The difference between nowhere and now here is a little space.

O.A.S.I.S.C.A.F.E.

by: Jeremy S. Smith and the OASISCAFE Lunar Module Project Crew
from: Salt Lake City, UT
year: 2019

O.A.S.I.S.C.A.F.E. is a full size, artistic representation of the Lunar Module that first landed on the moon in 1969. The lower half, or Descent Stage, will house various sub-installations related to the theme of the piece. The upper half, or Ascent Stage, will be constructed to look and feel similar to the actual Lunar Module, to experience what the astronauts lived in while on the moon.

Our Mission is to remember the biggest and most daring adventure humanity has ever taken. It is to allow the younger generations to connect with and understand what has just been a fact of history that happened before they were born. It’s celebrating something that humanity will still be remembering and celebrating 1000 years from now.

Olive Branch Library

by: Black Rock Public Library
from: San Francisco, CA
year: 2019

The Olive Branch Library is a humble offering of peace and knowledge from the Black Rock Public Library. It is an ornate secretaire-style cabinet containing hundreds of books, all available for checkout, due back in exactly one year. Those who explore the cabinet’s many wonders will be richly rewarded with poetry and prose, and entreated to leave some of their own.

OOO(Omikuji Of Object)

by: OOO(triple0)
from: Japan
year: 2019

OOO (Omikuji Of Object)

In Japan, there is a culture called OMIKUJIj.
When you go to the shrine, you will worship God and then ask fortunes and forgive the god to see the future.
I would like to do an installation using this fortune system.

OMIKUJI which I devised is unfinished one by one.
Each OMIKUJI is only one part.

However, the other OMIKUJI that matches my OMIKUJI is owned by someone else. If you find someone, OMIKIJI will be completed and bring new encounters.

The completed OMIKUJI will be installed in our objects by the people we meet, and the objects will also evolve during the period and approach the final completion.

Opus

by: Kathryn Greenberg, Ahren Alexander, and Dave Sumberg
from: San Francisco, CA
year: 2019

Opus is an interactive installation where visitors can become multi-sensory artists. Both a playable instrument and an immersive space, it takes the form of sound emanating from a surrealist keyboard as light. This piece celebrates collaboration by encouraging impromptu ensembles to explore composition as a shared experience. And, it invites musicians to step inside the music they create.

Out of this World Advice

by: awakening.io
from: Oakland, CA
year: 2019

An alien communication device was left here 2000 years ago by future-seeing aliens who knew that in 2019, humans would really need some advice. Passed down through generations, the communication device is now available for all to contact the extraterrestrials for advice.

Owl's nest

by: Vladimir Sofronov
from: Vancouver, Canada
year: 2019

Owl’s nest
Small harbour for a couple wandering in Deep Playa in the night to have a rest between parties, sit and talk warm and cozy, enjoy snacks left for them by thoughtful birds.

Panopticonotopia 2.1!

by: JJ Holoubek
from: San Francisco, CA
year: 2019

Hello! and welcome to Panopticonotopia 2.0!, the game-changing surveillance, security and mindshare corporation that takes your enterprise to the next level! Information sharing is essential to the protection of critical infrastructure and to furthering cybersecurity for the homeland. Panopticonotopia 2.0! solves your complicated challenges, helping you operate with greater productivity, security and compliance. Our contracted mission-critical services architect end-to-end security services that objectively leverage niche markets for a robust and expanded 24/7/365 surveillance ecosystem. Panopticonotopia 2.0 is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fink, Inc., a proud member of the VeriLarge Corporation’s family of products and services.

Passage Of a Radical Karmic Year (PORKY)

by: Bruce Cooper
from: Everett, WA
year: 2019

PORKY (Passage Of a Radical Karmic Year) is from the root POR (Point of Reference) and PORK (Point of Righteous Knowledge). One may ask what is the meaning of the piece? It has no meaning other than a love for creating, re-purposing past creations and the progressing of an acronym. How simple is that?
The piece is covered with over 1500 LED pixels controlled by a Teensy controller. A disco ball flashes will provide a means of locating it from across the playa.
Also it will provide the viewer a means to control of the animation and speed. The configuration and covering will provide some shade during the heat of the day and a visual impact during the night.
The ecological impact will be low due to the use of solar panels and batteries.

Pauper's Ballroom

by: Pedro Loughran
from: Sebastopol, CA
year: 2019

A Pauper’s Ballroom is what our parents tell us when walking down to a beach, a clearing or any other beautiful place in nature. A palace free to all. A pauper’s ballroom.

The piece is a grand staircase with no second floor, framed by four towers. The way to the ballroom is to climb the staircase, turn around and then descend. The ballroom is the playa but best appreciated through the descent of a staircase, giving you the trappings of grandeur, while being merely pretense to the actual beauty of the free, natural space of the playa.

“Nothing” is the absence of substance. It is the void, the infinite unknown. In this way, the “Stairway to Nothing” is the “Stairway to the Void.”

Or it’s just the “Stairway to the Playa’s Second Floor.”

Phoenix rising and Dragon Spinning

by: Magic Ma
from: Shanghai, China
year: 2019

Phoenix, also known as “Phoenix Emperor,” is the king of birds in ancient legends. Often used to symbolize prosperity and fortune in Chinese culture, phoenixes flying together serve as a symbol of auspicious harmony. It is an important element of Chinese culture since ancient times.
The Dragon will be 6M tall in a spiral shape, head to the sky waiting for the flames to come out of his tongue at the last night of the Burn!

Platonic Two: Tesseract

by: gnArt - Prime & Kerri
from: Calgary, Canada
year: 2019

A shimmering cube of wonder. What will one see when one gazes upon it?

Playa Bells 2019

by: Byron Chell
from: Eugene, OR
year: 2019

A heavy metal musical instrument created for the Burning Man Community.

Playa Connection Cafe

by: Glow Jess
from: San Diego, CA
year: 2019

Playa Connection Cafe is back and better than ever for Burning Man 2019. The installation is meant to highlight, what we feel, are the most important and meaningful art pieces on the Playa, the burners themselves! The cafe is meant to bring people together and open a dialogue, whether between complete strangers or lifelong friends. The questions in each category of the menu take the conversation from light to thought provoking, and everything in between. The idea is to facilitate communication since we often struggle with connection in the default world.

Playa Flowers

by: Jeff Tangen
from: Port Townsend, WA
year: 2019

A playful treatment of re-purposed materials to create a 12′ tall flower bouquet. There are 15 blue and red flowers. During the day sunlight illuminates the colored glass lenses that front the flowers and makes them glow. During the night the flowers are illuminated by LEDs. Viewers can use a control panel to control the LEDs. If the control panel is not in use the flowers are illuminated by an internal program.

Playa Harvey

by: Steve Landis
from: Brooklyn, NY
year: 2019

Playa Harvey is a response to Playa Barbie, which is what is wrong with the world all captured in an ugly pink box. Radical inclusion is not poorly defined gender stereotypes and artificial visions that upset the moral arc of the universe bending towards realistic body shapes and non-binary gender roles. Barbie is a plastic aesthetic that degrades the Burning Man culture with a false identity and unrealistic proportions.

If we love ourselves, honor those that create love and not what defines eating disorders. If we must pretend to be others, at least let it be a revolutionary countercultural visionary.

Then, like all great Burning Man art pieces, climb inside, learn about Larry, take a selfie and depart for other shiny sparkly things.

Playa Nebula

by: Mark Richards
from: Los Angeles, CA
year: 2019

The Playa Nebula is intended to appear as though the installation is a nebula taken from space & placed on playa. Nebula photos are colorful and soft; it evokes both the cloud-like and colorful character of these images. We celebrate the other-worldly presence that the playa provides us.

Playa Nebula is both seen and experienced; neither one without the other. It invites the viewer into a participatory act; first with the piece itself, second with surrounding environment. It acts as a place to connect to one another & witness the desert as universe. The soft-scape provided affords a place for participants to sit, climb, & play. It will allow for moments of internal reflections, for small intimate moments, & for inclusive social interactions.

Playa Wedding, Dusty Divorce

by: Magic Man + Sugar Plum
from: Silicon Valley, CA
year: 2019

Playa Wedding, Dusty Divorce represents the metamorphosis of relationships, the celebration when hearts join together & the process of letting go. All over the world people perform ceremonies filled with ritual as a rite of passage that help people move with greater intention from one way of being into another. Even simple acts can have great and powerful meaning.

The Playa Wedding side is a white wedding chapel with a beautiful ornate white wedding dress and black tuxedo symbolic of wedding ceremonies. The Dusty Divorce side is painted black with red paint and play knives strategically located on a 2nd wedding dress and black tuxedo symbolic for a divorce ritual.

PlayaBarbie Photo Box

by: Mike Anglin/PlayaBarbie Camp
from: Oakland, CA
year: 2019

The PlayaBarbie Photo Box is a giant toy box cover on its end, which allows Black Rock City residents to pose and show their true inner Barbie. This interactive photo box allows everyone the opportunity to capture their radical self expression in a visual postcard moment. Barbie represented the first doll that wasn’t for girls to nurture, the first independent woman represented in a toy. Barbie never married, is independent, confident and believes in herself. This year, PlayaBarbie “Now Includes Art Bike” to allow each of us to capture in time our individual self expression and effort each of us put into our transportation sensation.

Playascape

by: Alex Haw
from: London, United Kingdom
year: 2019

Playascape is a fantasy landscape for rising out of the flat playa and connecting with fellow explorers. It offers an organic, informal take on the traditional amphitheatre – enabling an audience or horde of dancers to focus on an event or group or person – or sound car – that might choose to occupy its centre; in return, anyone at its centre becomes surrounded by a wall of humans, each occupying the undulating landscapes in unique ways.
The structure aligns with the cosmos and celebrates the sunrise, midday and sunset rays of light that slice through it, as if on a giant sundial. And the structure doubles as a giant shade structure, where people can push through the stepped skin to shaded terraces at the rear, or shelter beneath them.

Playatic Forrest

by: Logical Phallusy Art Collective
from: Berkeley & Santa Cruz, CA; Portland, OR; Sognefjord, Norway
year: 2019

A lighted field of strange lights for exploring out in the deep.

Positive Reactor

by: Assaf Allouche
from: El Sitio de Playa Venao, Panama Republic
year: 2019

The Reactor is a large complexed geometric structure made of endless triangles. From the ground it looks like a crown or a pomograne, but from its center it forms the sacred geometrical shape of the Merkaba.

Its purpose is to remind us that acts of kindness reward the giver, the receiver and the witness of the good acts, with a boost of oxytocin, producing good feeling to all and taking nothing in return. Therefore creating energy — a Reactor!

Project Flashlight

by: Neal Strickberger
from: San Francisco, CA
year: 2019

Project flashlight is the joy of light at grand scale.

Pure, incredibly bright white beam-like fingers of God in the dust, contrast with the night sky, scale across the open playa, interplay of beams, light in motion.

Military/NASA billion-candlepower searchlights, reanimated for art! Interactive with tablet controls.

Psychedelicactus Garden

by: Jerrold Ridenour
from: Hesperia, CA
year: 2019

In the dry desert grows a rare variety of cacti known as the Psychedilcactus. It’s sprouted from Looney toon cartoons and pollinated with silliness. Five feet wide and 10 feet tall, yet only 1.5 inches thick. It will allow the viewer to question their own depth, or lack thereof. Some of the early blooms that have yet to fully mature may be scaled down and yet to reach their full height.

Quadrahedron

by: Ray Cundiff & Art Car Bus Stop
from: Windsor, CO
year: 2019

The Quadrahedron consists of 2’x2′ cubes configured to form a pyramid. A curious arrangement of color emerging from the dust that comes to life at night. Each side is painted with unique art that represent the multiple dimensions of the multiverse that may exist orthogonal to each other, only observable by altering your perception of the whole. And by intentionally looking even closer, one can discover an environment only visible to those who choose to look within.

Rolling Things

by: Ski Patrol
from: Chicago, IL & Phoenix, AZ
year: 2019

Rolling Things are a collection of ruled surface forms that all have the ability to roll on a flat surface. These geometric shapes will be set free to roam about the playa with some kindly rolling assistance from the citizens of Black Rock City. The forms are somewhere around eight to almost 10 feet tall, are made from galvanized steel tubing, and are lit by battery-powered LEDs integrated within the tubing.
Each form rolls in a unique pattern. The ruled surface forms include a hyperboloid hamster wheel, a right conoid, a sphericon, and an oloid.

Rose Project/The Necklace Factory

by: Barbara Quintanilla
from: Houston, TX
year: 2019

The Rose Project is an enchanting rose meant to draw you in with its magical beauty. During the day it will represent the beautiful flower and at night it will morph into a living rose that moves and sways you to the music.

Row Boat Bass

by: Wes Waltenspiel
from: Reno, NV
year: 2019

The Row Boat Bass will be an interactive musical piece of artwork. The back and body of the bass will be an old row boat. This boat will have a wooden front and metamorphose into a large musical instrument. The boat is 11.5 feet long and 4 feet wide and will have a 5.5 foot neck with a crown. The bass will have 4 steel strings and possibly some form of amplification. We are planning to have a hand crank or a wind power crank to strum and pluck the strings. There will be metal tines from an agricultural hay rake on the back and sides of the bass that will become a kalimba or thumb piano. These will be played either by hand or with wooden drum sticks and add musical depth and sound.

Rune Dice

by: Runester
from: Oakland, CA
year: 2019

Rune Dice is a fortune-telling system especially designed for the playa. Twenty-four wooden dice are inscribed with magical rune symbols. Participants can hold a question in their heart while handling and meditating on the images. When the querent feels the time is right, a door will open and release the dice on to a grid for interpretation. There will be a guided explanation available as well as reference material for the participant to delve into their answer as much as they wish.

SACRA

by: Kirsten Berg
from: Berkeley, CA/Bali, Indonesia
year: 2019

Sacra is a totemic gateway, symbolizing a pivotal point between infinite and finite. The sacrum (= ‘holy bone’) is the first gateway through which we metamorphize from space to substance, into the wordly realm. It is also the last bone that disintegrates, holding ritual significance in ancient cultures, as a reminder of the past and future passage that we all share. Sacra’s focal point is a ‘sacral object’, embedded with convex mirrors reflecting our shared cellular origins; a bowed gate like a funnel for source into form; a silhouette echoing Japanese torii gates, which traditionally indicate a passage between the profane/worldly plane to the sacred. “Sacra” mirrors that journey, literally and poetically, in reverse and also ‘in between’.

Salsola soda

by: Aranka Israni and Kai Dalgleish
from: Oakland, CA
year: 2019

Salsola soda is an invasive plant species. However, incredibly hardy. This collaboration between natural selection, New York-based situational artist, Aranka Israni, and found object sculptor, Kai Dalgleish, explores the relationship and distinction between the determined and deterministic, the probalistic and pugilistic, the ephemeral and the eternal.

Satellite

by: Gregg Fleishman
from: Los Angeles, CA
year: 2019

The stand alone portion of what has been on playa in the larger assemblages Otic Oasis, the Man Base Pistil, and the Otic Way, (all built in partnership with Melissa (Syn) Barron and Lightning Clearwater III), the Satellite is an embodiment of rhomboidal 3d space filling geometry consisting of interlocking structural plywood shapes in a classical vessel form. The integration of geometry and assembly methodology has elevated the construction process to something giving a glimpse of an unknown future.

See Trees

by: BiSH
from: Crested Butte, CO
year: 2019

Explore and ponder this life-sized, interactive aspen grove. Enjoy the shade by day and marvel at the magical canopy by night. This is a contemplative place. Notice the details, luring viewers to look into the trees’ eyes and discover alternate realms inside the trunks. Explore our relationship to nature in modern society. Pondering questions of a multi-faceted universe; in what ways might lifeforms relate and communicate to each other and what stories do we all share? How can we achieve balance between (un)known realities and the interconnections of modern society? Experiencing the internal tree realms will provoke feelings of love, paranoia, and enchantment; visual nourishment through scenes of nostalgia and spiritual sanctuary.

SHEDDING. Embrace vulnerability to achieve growth. Fear can be our ally.

by: Collective art by Sandra Bérubé, art designer and welder, Aimée Philibert, mask sculptor, and Trent K.Sierolawski, blacksmith and welder.
from: Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada
year: 2019

Our inner processes take life through sculptures. We all are confronted by challenges, injuries, traumas and losses, but all of those primal and legitimate fears and obstacles can be used as catalysts to break through into another step. We shed to become stronger. A giant spine like lamp post overlooks three wearable masks, each represents a distinct state: Dread, Shedding, Happiness. The Dread and Shedding masks will burn in the Temple, filled with everything we collectively leave in them. We are forging our happiness from within.

Shewolff

by: Chris Mack
from: Monterey, CA
year: 2019

The Shewolf is nature, constantly giving and directing our growth for thousands of years. Only recently has man conquered nature by what we think is a smart and clever manipulation for our benefit. “What nature can do, man can do better.”

Or can we? Has man depleted our mother or is she still willing to nurture us? Come out and drink from the elixir from nature’s breasts. Lay in her shadow, protected from harm.

Shewolf now has a partner wolf. Can he keep up? Can we keep up?

Shots Fired Espresso Service

by: PocoJoe
from: Tucson, AZ
year: 2019

Shots Fired is an interactive espresso service. Our crew knows the magic of the bean, and how it turns from the “cherry” that is harvested in the mountains into the espresso drink. The Shots Fired machine is a naked machine, fully unclothed to show the beauty of the interaction of heat, pressure and temperature in the creation of coffee. The ideal gas law PV=nRT is at the heart of good espresso. By obeying the law, coffee is created with hot (not boiling!) water under pressure at a precise temperature, squirted through beans that have been ground to the consistency required to cause 1 oz of water to flow through the puck at a pressure of 100 PSI. Our special ingredient – a touch of playa dust – only found in BRC!

Sideways Room

by: Larry Larry
from: Phoenix, AZ
year: 2019

Our art installation is an 8’x8’x8′ cube inside of which is a room designed to look like it is sideways. There are no signs telling you what to do, however, this is an art project that requires participation in order to understand the piece.

This piece is meant to be functional art. Some of the things our projects is meant to provide include but are nor limited to: shade from the sun, shelter from the dust, a place for people to gather and communicate, a place to rest, a place for sound reduction, a meeting point, or a landmark.

This project was our gift to the participants of Burning Man DaVinci’s Workshop in 2016. It is given as a small token of our appreciation for all the fantastic people and their wonderful creations that we have shared.

Some Things Never Change

by: Auguste Blue & Co
from: Los Angeles, CA
year: 2019

WonkaVision TV
Capturing all that is evolving and transforming behind it.
Concept by 4yr old second year baby burner.

Soul Shadows

by: The Unintelligent Design Society
from: Carmel Valley, CA
year: 2019

Soul Shadows is a refuge of shade and contemplation in the deep playa. Translucent human forms create a quiet glow as the bamboo and canvas chimes rattle in the wind. Our shadows can provide our greatest gifts.

space elephant

by: Oleg Suknov
from: Moscow, Russia
year: 2019

Space Elephant will describe how things and bodies get a new life after death in absolutely different forms. So on one hand it’s a scary elephant’s skeleton and on the other hand – a cozy tearoom and a calm place.

Space Polyp

by: Wizard
from: Oakland, CA
year: 2019

Space Polyp is a large underwater space creature that you ride. By climbing onto the pendulum platform you can sway the polyp around and make its holographic leaves undulate as the pendulum moves around. In the day the spectrum of the sun shines through the leaves and at night the LEDs cast colorful patterns onto the ground.

StairRamps to Heaven aka Consent Ramps

by: Lysa Joy Morgan
from: Livermore, CA
year: 2019

StairRamps to Heaven are a series of 12′ long ramps that serve as boarding platforms for those wishing to ride Mutant Vehicles. They are colorful and well lit. They are also known as Consent ramps as Consent is required before boarding a vehicle.

StairRamps to Heaven/Chaos & Order

by: Chaos & Order / StairRamps to Heaven
from: Corte Madera, CA
year: 2019

Our project is a handicapped accessible ramp. This project combines form and function as we also decorate to enhance the theme.

Star of Metamorphosis

by: Claudia La Bianca
from: Miami, FL
year: 2019

Pentamorphisis will look like a mirage as the seeker traverses the playa. Upon entering this shimmering alchemical container, the seeker will be spun into a dimensional reality where she will be challenged by the elementals to release fear, overcome ego, and find forgiveness and unconditional love for self on the road to purpose and service. Once selected the seeker will be asked to look into themselves (and a mirror) and find those aspects to be transmuted and overcome in order to realize freedom and the next level of attainment.

StarZ

by: Dragnet, Denny Smith
from: Manhattan Beach, CA
year: 2019

My tenth year of art on the trash fence and finally a project that will have you seeing STARZ. The farthest point at BRC, Point 3, once again is their beautiful wide open home. Literally on the green fence stakes you will perchance upon almost 100 STARZ of all kinds. They are creatively concocted by 25 different people from ages 3 to 75. Each star tells a story, some are head scratchers, all are quirky. They are created with almost 100% recycled objects, repurposed items from yard sales or found objects. Your ride along the fence will most certainly be rewarded with unexpected folk art that puts a smile on your face. Discover the sounds and the open vistas the deep playa offer. Wish upon one because as we all know the playa provides.

Stellar Core

by: Eric Sagotsky, Louis Kaufman, Peter Godart, Charles Sims
from: Los Angeles, CA
year: 2019

In Physics, a “stellar core” is the hottest and densest part of a star. This sculpture strives to inspire by showing how seemingly flexible materials such as aircraft cable can be combined to provide extreme rigidity and stability. The red, green and blue moving lights on this sculpture combine at it’s center to create a dynamic blend of color in a swirling rainbow. The sculpture is transparent and frames the background through it as well as projects it’s light out onto the playa around it illuminating the world with rainbows like the star that it was built to be.

Still Alive

by: Kontana Kas
from: Santiago, Chile
year: 2019

“Still Alive” is a heptagonal wooden structure covered with acrylic mirror sheets that generate a highly sensory interactive atmosphere.

This art piece projects and receives light through its entrances and skylights that are in synchrony with the sounds and the light that is emitted. It reflects the landscape of the desert from its exterior layers and an infinite universe in the interior.

Thus, this static installation mixes images from the surroundings in its mirrors and the trajectory of the sun combined with the vibrating pulse of Burning Man giving a semblance of a living form, as a metaphor of the cycle of life.

SWING

by: The ManDts
from: Las Vegas, NV
year: 2019

SWING is an art-play project. It is an 11′ tall two person swing built utilizing wood & steel, with support structures constructed in the silhouette of the Burning Man logo. We invite participants to play and experience both the active and contemplative fun that something about swings just brings about.

Talking Heads

by: Oleg Lobykin
from: Palo Alto, CA
year: 2019

Talking Heads is an abstract sculpture, a spatial composition based on a balance between negative and positive space in conjunction with a line that can create an image or point of reference to spark imagination.

This is a work of imagination, inviting the engagement of curiosity with creativity. The viewer can experience a multiplicity of meanings, depending on what goes on inside their own heads. Some may prefer looking at an object, while others like looking through the object. Maybe everyone lives in different realities. Talking Heads can show the power of imagination to lead us into a metaphysical and magical experience of metamorphosis.

Tatanka

by: Peter Hazel
from: Reno, NV
year: 2019

Tatanka is an Indian word for buffalo. For the Northern Plains people Tatanka meant life. Ceremonies and daily life revolved around sacred reverences to Tatanka. They relied upon the bison for food, clothing, housing, tools, just to name a few. This piece is a 9′ tall mosaic buffalo created in Reno, NV by large scale sculpture artist Peter Hazel. The piece is made up of thousands of handmade tiles of various colors, textures, and sizes.

Tecopa Yacht Club

by: Stranger Things Camp
from: Bozeman, MT
year: 2019

The Tecopa Yacht Club celebrates the famed and historic Tecopa Yacht Club. Though the club has been long abandoned, the recreation of this space is intended to provide a gathering spot – day and night for BRC 2019 citizens to come together, learn more about one another and interact together in the present and learn ways together to impact the world in a positive way in the future.

Temple of Brad Pitt

by: Geodesic Temple
from: Upstate NY
year: 2019

The Temple of Brad Pitt channels the famous Hollywood actor. It captures Brad Pitt’s aura, extracts the essence of his being through data gathering and redisplays it as a data portrait and performative sculpture enabling Burning Man 2019 participants who enter a special apparatus to briefly experience what it is to be him.

The Achilles Apparatus

by: The Achilles Krewe
from: Washington, D.C. region
year: 2019

The Achilles Apparatus allows communications with spirits and transdimensional intelligences. Several of the people working on it were or became insane; the mechanism by which it operates is under study.

The original Achilles Apparatus is more than 100 years old, but has been extended over the following decades. The current manifestation includes a console containing panels with switches, lights and other controls. The console is surrounded by three illuminated antenna masts. A separate desk contains notebooks, pictures and audio recordings about the history of the Achilles Apparatus.

Successfully activating the Achilles Apparatus is a complicated process that generally requires several people working together to manipulate the controls.

The Art Park

by: Olivia Steele
from: Berlin, Germany
year: 2019

TELL ME EVERYTHING! Welcome to the Art Park. Here you will find a 5-part series of interconnected installations by Olivia Steele centered around a 19th century antique confessional booth. The theme is forgiveness and the process is real. Burners are invited to explore the concept of forgiveness through awareness and confession. Heed the florescent and mirrored road signs surrounding the booth as you are reminded to Forgive yourself. Indulge in a daily dose of truth and humor as the message on the marquee board changes daily. Come light your fire with the fireplace of burning handwritten words that reads “I still love you.” And finally, ponder on the neon conundrum “Those who know themselves know their/they’re God.” It’s all connected.

The Bear

by: Michael Tscheu aka Synapse
from: Sacramento, CA
year: 2019

The Bear. An invitation to the courage and power to create.

The Blanket

by: Sasha Shtanuk
from: Moscow, Russia
year: 2019

This huge reflective installation will bring the waves of the ancient Lake Lahontan back to ‘laya. The Blanket will be constantly changing its silhouette by the power of wind, taking different surreal forms: waves, mountains, or some giant, fantastic sculpture.

The Center of Attention

by: 2019 Not The Center of Attention Camp camp members
from: Denver, CO
year: 2019

The Center of Attention is an interactive art piece where participants become the center of attention and then not the center of attention at the center of The Center of Attention. The Center is surrounded by a vertical rainbow of color fabrics to attract attention. Participants are given the opportunity to decide the type of attention they wish to receive. With clear consent from everyone present and involved, participants are given the options to get attention, give attention and pay attention before exiting the Center.

The Chrysalis

by: Fran Grabowski and Justin Natoli, Husbands
from: Los Angeles, CA
year: 2019

Derived from the Greek term for gold, chrysalis is the pupal stage of butterflies, who often encase themselves in a metallic gold cocoon.

Befitting this year’s Metamorphosis theme, The Chrysalis is the magical ceremony and celebration space in which Fran Grabowski and Justin Natoli will enter as individuals and emerge as husbands. Come join us as we celebrate our transformation!

The Dust Telephone

by: Marissa Baumann & Robert Damphousse
from: Oakland, CA
year: 2019

The Dust Phone pays homage to an accidental art installation in Japan – Kaze no Denwa (風の電話)- or The Wind Telephone. After the Tohoku earthquake, this disconnected telephone became a touchstone and a conduit of grief. Our phone booth structure is inspired by traditional Japanese Shoji screens and resembles a large Japanese lantern. Inside is an old telephone with a voicemail system that will record any story participants wish to share. The intention is to create a private, tranquil space for folks to talk with someone or something they miss and record their story if they choose. There is also an option to listen to messages left by others. Grief is a powerful metamorphic force and the Dust Phone seeks to hold the stories of that change.

The Electric Sheepcatcher 2.0

by: The Gardeners of Missed Connections
from: San Francisco, CA
year: 2019

The Electric Sheepcatcher 2.0 is a gateway between the world of sleep and the world of wakefulness. It is a quirky place where the grass smells of lavender, sheep fly in to be counted, and a dreamcatcher sparkles with passing visions. Participants can come to experience tranquility, or to control the medieval siege weapons that give the animals just the right trajectory.

The Fairy Oracle 2019

by: Paradox
from: Silver City, NM
year: 2019

The gazebo is about a 6′ wide hexagon, 9′ high. There is a 20″ high ‘eye’ on the top of it that locks on to passersby at night.

The gazebo has a 14″ fairy oracle inside that talks and listens.

The gazebo is lit by LEDs that change with the progress of the prophecy.

The Field of Echoes

by: Conjectures
from: Marin, CA
year: 2019

The Field of Echoes is an interactive sound installation that transforms a piece of the open playa into a reverberant space where sound echoes and decays slowly as it would in a large enclosed space such as a cathedral or cavern. This pocket of altered acoustics contrasts strongly with the vast openness of the playa, transporting participants to a sonic environment that is at once familiar and new. Spoken words, hand claps, performances on musical instruments, and all other sounds made within the installation are rewarded with a lush, surround-sound response as they are echoed throughout the space by a number of small pillars rising above the playa’s surface, scattered across an area approximately 60 feet in diameter.

The InnerSun Project

by: The InnerSun Crew
from: The World
year: 2019

This monumental art structure is an eight-story wooden globe gently cradled by a giant pair of hands. Within, the space is lit by a sacred light: the InnerSun. A series of wheelchair accessible ramps wind up the curved walls to an equatorial terrace, where participants will gather inside the sphere.

The InnerSun Project: A global art collaboration. Each massive hand on the structure is comprised of individual human-sized hands with messages from across the world written on them — our collective answer to “what’s your InnerSun?” In this way, thousands of people from anywhere in the world can take part in the artwork itself.

Many hands, one light, a better world.

The Key Bearer Project

by: Scott R Fraleigh (Plasma)
from: Reno, NV
year: 2019

The Key Bearer Project contains a visually pleasing central gathering area made using mathematical principles, with four pyramids, the Archway of Pi, swing sets made of two colliding golden ratios, and a double sided reflective heart. Around the area are five crystal structures to keep safe the gifts that aim to make more sense of the world. Through a gifting process that sends participants on an adventure, they will interact with beautiful art, people and games that will lay the foundation for individuals to bond, form meaningful connections, and express themselves with the embrace and encouragement of others.

The Larry Memorial

by: Dana Albany, Andrew Johnstone, David Best, Flash Hopkins
from: San Francisco, CA
year: 2019

A stepped pyramid crowned with a palanquin and large spire, flanked on each corner by lamplighter spires.
It serves as a physical representation of Larry’s mind palace and contains some of Larry’s books and mementos.

THE LENS

by: Lauren Kilb and the uncūth collective
from: Costa Mesa, CA
year: 2019

The Lens is a playful yet confrontational art piece that challenges participants to experience shifts in perspective. By enabling a sudden shift in focus from the external world, to infinite self-centered images, participants are invited to make a parallel shift in their habitual perceptions of themselves.

We need to turn inwards; to feel, heal and grow. We also need to expand out and see beyond ourselves; to connect with our tribe. So we come to understand that to change the smallest part is to change the nature of the whole. Finding the balance between the two is where we find the courage to set ourselves free, to be who we’ve always felt we are.

Simultaneously singular & infinite; separate & connected.

What will you see through your lens?

The Lionfish Lounge

by: Kristen Williams
from: San Diego, CA
year: 2019

The Lionfish Lounge — break past the sharp exterior to find an interior of fluff and comfort.

The Listener

by: Rob Banagale, Skylark Collective
from: Portland, OR
year: 2019

The Listener is a large interactive game based on the 1980s favorite “Simon.” Come work together with friends and strangers to repeat sound and light sequences using the button on your pedestal. Repeat enough sequences and enjoy a dazzling display of light and sound.

The Little Church of Thoughts and Prayers

by: graTis
from: Vista, CA
year: 2019

The Little Church of Thoughts and Prayers is a place to rest and reflect on part of our insane American culture. Meet kindred spirits or be challenged by opposing points of view.

The Mourning Grove

by: Spectral Form
from: San Francisco, CA
year: 2019

The Mourning Grove is an immersive light sanctuary of weeping willows formed by a dynamic field of lights arranged in an organic configuration in the outskirts of Black Rock City. The grove will consist of five equidistant trees with branches leaning inward towards the center. Each vine consists of hand-crafted fiber optic leaves that hang off the branches forming the weeping willows’ canopies. The light emitted through the twisted design of the trees casts ambient impressions at night, paralleled with shifting shadows during the day, providing both shelter and time.

The Music Box

by: Dan Barnes, The Tinkers Knot
from: St. George, UT
year: 2019

The Music Box is a human powered interactive contraption of the imagination. Made with metal and recycled materials , it is an oversized music box that will play a tune.

The Ovule

by: Zoe Fry and The Introverts Collective
from: Mill Valley, CA
year: 2019

An Ovule in botany is the part of the ovary of seed plants that contains the female germ cell and after fertilization becomes the seed. The Ovule is a self-portrait; an exploration of the feminine self and the value found there. Appearing as a large amber egg, it will contain two sculptures, a figure and a tree symbolizing humanity in all the beauty of its gender and color spectrum.

The Pain Cave

by: Kathy D'Onofrio
from: Truckee, CA
year: 2019

Spinning, swirling, rocking; non-stop thoughts all around and inside. A cavernous void crushing and suffocating. Stuck, stifled and condemned by imagined and spineless fear.

The Phoenix and The Butterfly: A story of metamorphosis

by: swig miller
from: Topanga, CA
year: 2019

Imagine walking across the playa, looking up to see a huge flaming Phoenix flying high in the night sky facing its partner, a beautiful glowing Butterfly. Twenty-five-foot pyramids made of spheres connect you to them and a staircase invites you to share their view.

Imagine returning the next day to find these pyramids filled with interactive elements like places to connect, find shade, swing, climb, and view the playa.

The Portal

by: Johnny Crash & Nicky Alice
from: Marshall, NC
year: 2019

The Portal is a large scale interactive kaleidoscope you can climb up into. The body structure is a dodecahedron. It has 10 pentagon shaped inward facing mirrored panels with LED patterns. The outside of the panels will have geometry based LED patterns on wood, then caged for climbability. The top face will be used for sunlight entry and will house a spinning star powered by a wind turbine, the bottom face will be used for a standing platform and human entry. The body will be off the ground, suspended by steel legs. Humans can climb into the body from the bottom and will have standing room. The visual impact from the outside will be a climbable geometric vessel. Within will be infinite patterns of light which the user becomes a part of.

The Present Moment

by: Jonathan Yudis (Cosmic Cowboy), Timothy Johnson (Cyberius Rex), & CAMP MYSTIC
from: Kula, Hawaii
year: 2019

The Present Moment is a circular meditation platform on which up to three participants can sit facing and looking out to the playa in various directions. Inside the platform are several speakers that will play a specific vibrational sound mantra that can be heard while sitting on the platform. This sound mantra can be listened to or if the participants are inspired to, they can repeat it mentally or aloud while they sit. The project is designed to encourage direct experience of the present moment and the sound vibrational mantra is one that invokes love and compassion for all beings and all life.

The Secret Bench

by: Gabriella Moreno
from: San Francisco, CA
year: 2019

The Secret Bench will be placed in the deep playa waiting for anyone who needs a rest or quiet moment to reflect. I will be there Monday through Friday from 4:30-6:30 if anyone needs someone to talk to for reflection or perspective. This is my gift to the community. I am a professional therapist by training and whether they get professional advice or very nonprofessional suggestions will be contingent on their issues. During the times that I am not there, this bench can be used as a buddy bench. If someone sees another sitting on the bench, it is an opportunity to take a seat and make a friend. You never know who you will run into or connect with on the playa and this will be a constructive way to facilitate this encounter.

The Self

by: Ana Zuleta
from: Dublin, CA
year: 2019

“Duality” of the self represented by a heart depicting two equal sides of humanity — the higher self represents higher levels of consciousness, awareness, virtues. While equally representing the darker, primal, aspects of humanity — the lower self. As human beings, we have the choice to operate from the lower self of consciousness, which has an adverse effect of bringing forth destruction to health, society, environment & the world. Adversely the effect of placing our focus to operate from higher levels of consciousness — we create, we move forward as a species, cohesively supporting others, environment & world. In the grand scheme, there is no good or bad, but rather choice to operate at the higher/lower frequency levels which reside within us.

The Temple uv Enlightenment

by: Debi Cable and Dave Taylor
from: Los Angeles, CA
year: 2019

A beautiful oasis of color and light, this sacred space provides a spectral beacon for all who pass by. Brilliantly colorful by day, it comes alive at night under UV lighting. The Temple uv Enlightenment is a gathering point for passing minstrels, artists or any who seek to be soothed in the beautiful space, surrounded by beautiful 3D ultraviolet artwork.

The Tower

by: ART BARF
from: Seattle, WA
year: 2019

The Tower is an interactive lifeguard stand and observation deck accessible by ladder. Visitors can climb up to the deck and observe the playa from a new vantage. Inside the hut, visitors find simple tools for spontaneous interaction. Made of untreated wood, the simple shape looks both silly and at home on the waterless beach. Named for card 16 in the tarot’s major arcana, where The Tower represents the chaos of sudden change.

The Trailing Soul

by: The Other Singularity
from: Austin, TX
year: 2019

A one hundred yard mobile art piece of articulated panels of soft white light illuminates fabric billows behind an apparition in a long ombre. The Trailing Soul tells how our light of intellect, energy of emotion & interactions diffuses behind us as we journey amongst humanity. Acknowledging that energy requires immediacy and reveals the power and effort each of us has to influence our fellow human.

Active at night at times, The Trailing Soul may interrupt a pre-planned route requiring immediacy or circle a resonant group pooling energy. During the day, the Trailing Soul becomes a Resting Soul gathering power from the sun and those that choose to sit amongst its billowing fabric and tinkling chimes.

The Turn of a Friendly Cat

by: Grandmaster Trash
from: Berlin, Germany
year: 2019

The Turn of a Friendly Cat is a fence installation. Maneki-Neko, the beckoning cat, is an Asian-based talisman figurine which is believed to bring luck to the owner. How can it change into controversial politicians and other sinister characters? Certainly by Metamorphosis!

The TVs

by: Steve LaBerge, Damon Koronakos and the TV Artists
from: Tacoma, WA; San Francisco, CA
year: 2019

The TVs collectively resemble a highway billboard standing about 12 feet tall and 18 feet wide. 20 fiberglass TVs, each embellished by different artists with thoughts of what TV has meant to them.
During the day some people will get off their bikes to take a close look at what each of the 20 artists did to each of the TVs regarding the topic: TV. Participants will think about and relate to the messages put forth.
At night the display shows beautiful LED animations across all TVs as if the TVs together represent a single large screen. As a participant approaches the installation, the participant’s moving image silhouette will be super-imposed upon the animations and displayed across the wall.
#TheTVs

The wall

by: Tom Herck
from: Belgium
year: 2019

A Mexican piñata symbol in recycled wooden pallets in the shape of a Trojan Horse (23 foot high) will face a wooden wall (32 feet wide and 13 feet high), with the horse’s back towards Mexico.
During the interactive exhibition, the piñata will be dressed with clothing that is 100% cotton from the participants at Burning Man. We are going to collect the clothes and put them together by color. In this way we will dress up the giant piñata, a symbol of unity.

In return the participants get a polaroid picture in front of the installation with a message from the artist what they can take home. The people of burning man can also write messages on the wall.
Walls and border change in history and like ideas fade away like flames.

The wandering wonderful door

by: Marvel*us
from: Berlin & Rohrbac, Germany & Austria
year: 2019

The best thing someone can get as a guest is a warm heartful welcoming. The place someone’ll be welcomed is at the door.
Just imagine a magic looking door which can appear anytime to anyplace on the playa. It looks like an entrance to a different world. It’s a playground for our senses. And when someone goes through it, it’s the place with the most beautiful hugs.
That’s the wandering wonderful door; or short: the wanderful door. < 3

The Word on The Street

by: Scott Froschauer
from: Los Angeles, CA
year: 2019

From a distance, one imagines that they are being told that the circular space defined by this piece is inaccessible. Eight signs appear to proclaim “Do Not Enter.” But on closer inspection, the message is much different.

Therolin no2

by: Ryan Elmandorf
from: Denver, CO
year: 2019

Therolin is a Theremin but instead of playing from a speaker the instrument is a very large guitar string electronically strummed, using an 8 inch X 20 ft pipe as a resonating body. The large pipe juts up from the playa at a very low angle. It ends at eye height. Below it’s opening a small podium awaits. As the participant reaches out to touch the podium, they will notice a soft musical sound starting to emit. If they move their hand closer to the antenna, the pitch of the sound will rise, and as they move their hand away the pitch will fall. The experience will be the interface of a traditional theramin, but with a more real, physical sound in lieu of the traditional synthesized sound.

Throw the Stories in the Fire

by: Candi Carrell
from: Tucson, AZ
year: 2019

“Still I rise but at first I must burn to emerge.” Do we as humans live our lives like a chapter in a book and if so, what do our chapters look like?

Till Death do us Heart

by: Candi Carrell
from: Tucson, AZ
year: 2019

Many hearts create many feelings. I wonder what my heart is saying!!

Time Camp, Clock Brothers

by: Time Camp 2019
from: Oklahoma City, OK and Monterey, CA
year: 2019

Time Camp’s Giant Digital Clock
The art piece allows all participants to leave a unique message to the playa in blazing red LED. Visible from the Man, the Temple, the Playa and the Esplanade!
Your imagination and creativity allows you to customize your very own piece of art.
Take a picture of your creation and share it at #timeclock2019

Time Machine MVP

by: Liya Iva
from: Moscow, Russia
year: 2019

This is a first prototype (an MVP) of a time-travel booth.

Please keep in mind, that this MVP currently operates in one direction and can only take you from the present to the future and the currently available speed is one second per second.
If the testing proves interest in our prototype, in the coming Burns we will be bringing a fully operating time-machine, which will be able to take you in different directions in time and at different speeds. Actually, if goes as planned, this current MVP will be replaced with a real time-travel booth.

This is in fact also a place-holder. When ready, our fully functional time-travel booth will be sent here on 08/31 at 5 pm. Please meet us next to the booth at this time (not too close just in case).

Tiny Dirty Secret

by: CrazySafe
from: Richland, WA
year: 2019

Tiny Dirty Secret (TDS) – is the third art piece in a series of Dirty Secret Art. The 2 previous were Big Dirt Secret and Little Dirty Secret in which each have been a huge sensation. They have gathered thousands of Dirty Secrets and are always a cool place to sit and chill.

TDS will be an 9″x9″x58″ pedestal much like a mailbox. It will be made from high grade quality hardwoods, and finished with a smooth dust free surface. A tray will fold down from the front and reveal a writing surface, pens, and Dirty Secret Cards. On the top there will be a slot to drop in the card. It will be small, quaint and beautifully interesting.

Everyone has a secret, this will be the place to write them down and release them.

Transition In Comfort

by: Michelle Tarantino
from: Brentwood, CA
year: 2019

A journey of mental transition displayed through three large quilts, hung on an old fashioned laundry line.

Trash is Art. Art is Trash.

by: Travis Gregg
from: San Francisco, CA
year: 2019

Trash is Art. Art is Trash. aims to show fellow burners how much trash escapes our grasp. TAAT is a 200ft long orange fence with the words “Trash is Art” on one side, and “Art is Trash” on the other. Placed ~200ft off the trash fence, TAAT collects trash before it gets to our pristine trash fence by litterally (pun) replicating the fence. Burners will be a part of the art by simply existing, creating trash, and then interacting with it at Trash is Art. Art is Trash.

Let’s be honest with ourselves and acknowledge our failings such that we can improve! TAAT’s sole purpose is to show us how much we need to improve in our Leave No Trace effort!

After the Burn, all collected art/trash, will be deposited where it belongs.

Traversing Through Dust

by: Ramiro Martinez Jr. and the MATH COLLECTIVE
from: San Diego, CA
year: 2019

Out of the dust, citizens of Black Rock City will see a metal bridge made up of five towers with six decks suspended from the towers.These decks will be made of wood and held up with lifting cable. Decks will start at ground level. They will rise to a height of 20 feet. The bridge will take up six sides of an octagon. Participants will be able to interact with lights that will be attached to the towers. The lights will produce shadows and trail effects that will cause participants to question their reality. Participants are encouraged to write on the structure about their experience at designated locations. Participants will be able to climb the structure.

Trippity Twitchit

by: True North Absurdities
from: Calgary, Canada
year: 2019

A cluster of giant steel stems, wrapped around each other and swirling upwards, will form the base of the main structure and its support. The stems will be segmented to show definition as well as hug the curves. Atop the stems, at approximately 10′-12′, sit three massive heads, sharp-toothed and spiky, looking in different directions. These will be the fire breathers, each independently controlled from the ground.Flanking the main structure will be three smaller plants, all with similarly twisted stems and spiky, toothy heads. Inside these heads will be LED par cans, focused on the main structure for extra illumination.

Tulpa Ashrams

by: One Art Museum
from: Peking, China
year: 2019

TULPA ASHRAMS is a tower group represents the fusion of senses. Tulpa is a concept in mysticism and the paranormal of a being or object which is created through spiritual or mental powers. It was adapted by 20th century theosophists from Tibetan: སྤྲུལ་པ་ which means “emanation” or “manifestation”.

Emerging from a study into the geometry of Chinese art and architecture, the tower group references motifs and elements traditionally found in Tibetan Buddhism, chanting music, sacred places, and daily objects though in itself.

Tulpa Ashrams has ties to no religion. It transcends time and space, memories and culture.They are chaotic eons of the past and a distant future of the unknown.

Turn, Turn, Turn

by: Chad Rice
from: Fernley, NV
year: 2019

Turn, Turn, Turn is a forced-perspective sculpture exploring the constantly evolving phases of human life. Consisting of vertical columns arranged in a golden ratio spiral, Turn, Turn, Turn allows the participant to move around the piece, changing their visual experience based on their location. As they move, specific columns align, creating multiple images which seem to morph from one into another. Upon entering the spiraling passageway inside the piece, participants experience the imagery from an entirely different perspective, while discovering some up-close detail surprises.

Tzompantli

by: T. Booth Haley
from: Berkeley, CA
year: 2019

Tzompantli were skull racks that were built in front of temples in a number of Mesoamerican civilizations to demonstrate the power of the ruling elite and their gods. The sacrificial victims are thought to have been mostly captives of war.

Each victim was skinned and had a hole cut in the cranium by an expert using obsidian blades. Tzompantli is a Nahuatl word, the language of the Aztecs, and the largest one was in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. It was 60 by 30 meters, several meters tall, and contained an estimated 60,000 skulls.

This BRC tzompantli is a replica of the ancient ones. The historical tzompantli stood outside the oldest temples of the Americas and here the skull rack stands outside the newest temple of the Americas.

Unintentional Broken Promises

by: Adam Kurth
from: The nitty gritty, oh so pretty, TACOMA, WA
year: 2019

Unintentional Broken Promises is a statue shaped like a cash symbol that is degrading into the wind, made from baseball cards. What was once a symbol of investment and value is now found to be worthless and a burden.

UNPOP (Unpopular Music)

by: Community Improvement Association (CIA)
from: Chicago, Edmonton AB, SF, NY
year: 2019

UNPOP, or “Unpopular Music,” is an intimate, 8-channel surround sound environment featuring quiet, detailed sounds, including field recordings, abstract electroacoustic music, ambient textures, and other non-beat-oriented sound experiences. For those deep playa wanderers who are looking for sonic respite and exploration, UNPOP offers a unique program of multichannel sound works that will run from dust until dawn.

Varanasi Sage

by: Chelsea Lynn, Namaste & Chill
from: Atascadero, CA
year: 2019

Custom-printed prayer flags create a pyramid around a fawn resting in a lotus flower, on a platform decorated with glyphs that convey a message: True wisdom belongs to the natural, non-human world. And yet, the natural non-human world is vulnerable to humans; humans must choose not to destroy it and instead revere it as the divine. It shows the wisdom, inherent compassion, harmony and gentleness.
Deep transformation can come from a place of peace. Even in the chaos of the playa, one can find peace. People may feel overwhelmed or lost in deep playa — this is a refuge. It provides comfort and calm and shows that peace is always available.

Vibraj 4.0 The Gazebo

by: Dania Morris
from: Los Angeles, CA
year: 2019

A gazebo appears in the distance as an oasis in a chaotic desert. Inspired by the bubbling spawning pool that is LA and beautiful laser cut trash, this environment is reminiscent of a futuristic gazebo. The walls are made of layered geometric shapes framed as art. Under each piece is a bench back to sit and lean against. Within this six sided circular structure there is no beginning or end. The wind speaks to those who will listen via the structure. Resonating chambers, strings, and chimes bathe the environment in sound illustrating the interconnected nature of the universe via the principles of sympathetic resonance and kinetic motion. Night views include a subtle changing lightscape that casts colorful shadows on the playa.

Vortex

by: Martin Taylor
from: San Francisco, CA
year: 2019

Vortex is a kinetic light sculpture that participants can rotate with a large hand-wheel at the base.

A series of parametrically generated iridescent panels adorn the outside of the sculpture. Each panel reflects a different color depending on its orientation to the viewer, creating a rippling effect.

Way with Words

by: Joe Taylor, Cat Dunleavy and Todd Shimkus
from: Kings Beach, CA
year: 2019

A Way with Words is an interactive art installation that allows participants to physically manipulate famous quotes into new inspiring phrases. The sculpture is a small semi-circular space created by six benches on the top of which sits a grid of ceramic blocks that can be spun and configured to align words from the quotes. A Way with Words celebrates the struggle to accurately remember a favorite quote. It embraces short term memory loss and encourages new discovery. The blocks are literally words set in stone, and also an opportunity to re-create an inspiring quote for someone else to remember . . . or forget.

We Are

by: Aaron Feinberg
from: Kaua'i, HI
year: 2019

WE ARE is a life-size replica portrait photo book with a spine that is bound with large rings and pages printed on white dibond. At night it will be illuminated just like a book with ‘clip on’ style overhead lighting.

Burning Man is a self-driven community, and my portrait project over the years has aimed to capture those that embrace the Radical Self-expression aspect. My personal perspective is that we are all here for the enjoyment of everyone else and creative dress is a part of that. Printing out life-size images gives the full effect of what it looks like and feels like to capture these people in that moment. After all, WE ARE Burning Man !

WE. The People.

by: Sharon DeMattia in loving collaboration with various magician artists and The Generator
from: Reno, NV
year: 2019

Imagine a large, glowing, transparent circle like a beacon on the playa. As you approach, two human forms push and pull luggage against resistance while a third heaves a suitcase onto a long entry wall not made of bricks or sticks, but of baggage. Some are open and display the artifacts of identity and a sign states, “Everyone has a story to tell.”

You enter the circle and are greeted by 108 blank human forms and scattered permanent markers as invitation. A center hub holds an integrated center, where dialogue converges with a human form costumed as the creative forces of the universe. Three wise children at play lead you out of the circle through wings and a sign that says, “Now you are Free.”

Progressive, participative, metamorphosis.

Welcome to the Jungle

by: Tyler Buckheim
from: Key West, FL
year: 2019

A layered structure of semi-translucent two dimensional cut out plant forms, make a three dimensional visual jungle escape for viewers.

Wheel Of Fortune

by: Bruce Brodie
from: San Anselmo, CA
year: 2019

“In medieval and ancient philosophy the Wheel of Fortune, is a symbol of the capricious nature of Fate. The wheel belongs to the goddess Fortuna who spins it at random, changing the positions of those on the wheel: some suffer great misfortune, others gain windfalls.”

Fate is it’s own form of metamorphosis.

The construction is a wheel, 5′ in diameter, suspended between two timber A frames.

Mounted on the wheel, are 16 gimbeled LED candles.
The wheel will be driven by a DC motor with solar backup.
I will have a section of Saint Matthew Passion by Bach playing when the wheel is activated.

The creative act is not performed by the Artist alone….the spectator…contributes to the creative act (Marcel Duchamp).

Why People Can't Fly

by: Vasily Klyukin and Zurab Ermilov
from: Moscow, Russia
year: 2019

“Why People Can’t Fly” is a work that I feel represents myself. I, much like most of us, have baggage, problems and worries that drag me down. Because of this baggage, I feel like I can’t fly, metaphorically. I’m being pulled down by my obligations and my inner immaturity.

I know I’m not the only one with these issues. Each of us has baggage that weighs on us. Whether it’s financial, familial or personal, these problems are at the base of each of our lives. We as a species and individually cannot grow unless we change, we cannot fly without it.

Seven sins underly these problems. These are our own, personal sins and the sins of those people on whom we rely and depend.

Wing Portal

by: Suki Somersall, Sven Eberwein, John Briscella, Maria Dubrovskaya, Alexander Green, Stephan Rodan, Josh McFarland, Glenn Fischer, Vincent Lauenstein
from: California
year: 2019

Built as a gift for California, a sculpture of transcendence made from the ruins of the 2018 fires. This past fall our community here in California was hit by the devastating fires that destroyed hundreds of homes and affected so many lives. These events have deeply changed us.

As a visual metaphor to transcendence and metamorphosis, our team is building a sculpture out of the ruins from the fire and is bringing it to another place of deep personal transformation: Burning Man. And after the Burn, the sculpture will be publicly installed in California.

The wings span 60 feet across, and are built out of recycled metal, iridescent dichroic acrylic panels and thousands of LED lights.

YES

by: Michael Tscheu aka Synapse
from: Sacramento, CA
year: 2019

An invitation for the courage to say YES to life’s possibilities.

Zigzag Reflection & Reveal

by: G. Scott at Zigzag's Atelier
from: Ketchum, ID
year: 2019

Zigzag Reflection & Reveal appears as a small point of repose on the open playa allowing Citizens to playfully interact under shade with the mirror garden and respond to queries on the banners challenging them to reveal answers to, “I Wish, I Hope, I Will, I Want …, I’ve Been Meaning To Tell You…, If I Could Do or Take Back One Thing….” or whatever happens to be on their mind.