KATIE: 

 I wanted to touch on this year’s Burning Man theme, Curiouser & Curiouser. You may recognize that that’s a Lewis Carroll phrase taken from Alice in Wonderland, although the theme isn’t about that story per se, but about the greater concepts of curiosity and wonder, the absurd, the unknown, and how something really special can happen in that place of not knowing. That’s where learning and growth and creativity and awe can all arise.

And so the hope with this theme is that we’ll all be inspired to create art and experiences for each other that are genuinely curious, and that in turn, we will also be curious about the world and each other and go into each encounter with an open mind and a sense of wonder.

STUART: 

Hey, everybody, welcome back to another episode of Burning Man LIVE. I’m Stuart Mangrum and I am here with my friend Katie Hazard, who runs Burning Man’s Art Department. Hi, Katie.

KATIE: 

Hey, Stuart.

STUART: 

Well, we’re in that exciting time of year again, aren’t we? You said the other day something about passing the equinox in the life of the art department, which, I know life gets very busy right after Black Rock City. There’s really no letup. But what do you mean by the equinox?

KATIE: 

Hmm, well, I was reflecting when we hosted Desert Arts Preview a couple days ago that it really feels like a landmark, like a red letter day on the calendar when we come to this point in the year. We do start working with these artists as early as the fall, right after Burning Man, but the moment when they’re all ready to start sharing their stories with the rest of the world feels to me like a real kind of line in the sand, or a time that’s like, okay, the community is now really starting to think about Burning Man, and participants are wanting to start making their own plans, and start hearing about what kind of art is coming this year.

STUART: 

Well, I know your season starts early, because pretty much as soon as I get home and get the dust off my gear, you start gently nagging me about what next year’s art theme is going to be. 

So this year we’re doing Curiouser & Curiouser. How do you think artists responded to that overall? Give me some real feedback here. You don’t have to worry about hurting my feelings.

KATIE: 

I like that it’s a little less concrete than some years. Animalia was neat, but people just — it was about animals. People took it very literally and made all kinds of animals. And it  was fun. I really enjoyed the way that people saw that took in all kinds of different directions. But curiosity as a theme, it leaves more open to the imagination. 

Some people I think are taking the Lewis Carroll quote a little too literally and saying, “Oh, it’s an Alice in Wonderland theme.” It’s not an Alice in Wonderland theme, like it’s a reference to that story, which is a great story about curiosity in itself. But for me, the theme is curiosity and what it like when you open your mind, when you put yourself in new situations that make you think differently. So people are taking that in a lot of directions. 

There’s one project that was on Desert Arts Preview that’s really lovely. It’s a group of K-8 students in Reno, where the teacher, who is a Burning Man volunteer, said, “Hey, kids, what does curiosity look like?” So they went through all kinds of exercises to try to generate what is a conceptual thing like curiosity look like when it’s a concrete, you know, an actual sculpture.

STUART: 

Well, I know you’ve come to our session today with a suitcase full of clips from the Desert Arts preview, which, if anybody doesn’t know, this is an annual celebration of some of the Honoraria artists who are bringing their work to Burning Man. We don’t have enough time in the world for, I think, all 400 art projects, funded and self-funded, but something like 16, 20, something like that.

KATIE: 

13 we featured this year. And not just Honoraria, actually, we always like to feature some artists that aren’t getting funding from us, because we really do try to support all artists evenly, regardless of whether they’re getting some money.

STUART: 

Great. Well, I know you brought a clip from the Capsule of Curiosity by the Gryphonart Collective. Do you want to tell us a little bit more about the group behind this? You said it’s kids.

KATIE: 

That’s right. So it’s led by a woman who is a longtime volunteer in our communications department here at Burning Man, Sonder, from the Census Team. She works in education in Reno. She works at a K-8 school, and she partnered with other educators and parents and the kids in the school to do this project. 

Actually, when they first proposed it, it was such a vague drawing. There’s a Letter of Intent stage in the Honoraria process, and we were like, “Okay, we love the idea of working with kids,” but there were three different drawings and they were all kind of different. And we were like, “But what is this thing really going to look like here?” Because it really did take their team some time.

But you know, we had faith in them and we’re like, “Okay, well, when you submit the full proposal, we need a little bit more of an idea, for real, about what we’re talking about here.” And by then, in January, when they submitted that, they had more of an idea, but it really took their community time to think through all this stuff.

And there’s some really fun stories about the kids thinking about curiosity, which is just a really great concept to think about when you’re working with kids at that age. They’re innately curious about the world around them. 

STUART: 

And to be curious about curiosity is very meta. So we’re going to do something that we love to do on Burning Man LIVE, which is to talk about visual art. All of our listeners, go ahead and close your eyes and listen to this clip of the Capsule of Curiosity.

Gryphonart Collective:

The Gryphonart Collective, with its eclectic mix of artistic perspectives, diverse creative influences, and a shared passion for community, provides a rich tapestry for our young artists to weave their creativity. The collective’s collaborative spirit enhances the immersive experience, offering a unique fusion of artistic elements to echo the dynamics of our project.

What is curiosity? Well, if you’re wondering what I just said, you might be curious.

This large, interactive sculpture represents the pursuit of learning through curiosity. It is a collaborative project with school age students, and serves as an inspirational piece that will challenge participants to think more deeply about curiosity, and how it drives a lifelong love of learning. The sculpture design was student driven. We asked students, “What does curiosity look like?” They described the visualization of curiosity as including bright colors, organic shapes, having movement, and ever changing. 

We then used AI to make a visual representation of their description of curiosity, and share those back with students. 

The main structure is what the collective decided best captured what they had in their mind’s eye. 

This inflatable structure will be approximately 15ft wide, 15ft tall, with an additional four feet of tentacles that will dance with the Black Rock Desert winds.

The inside of the structure features the faces of curiosity. These line drawing self-portraits are by students ranging in age from five to 14. Not all of our student artists will be able to be citizens of Black Rock City 2024, but their faces will make concrete their connection to the project. 

Additionally, there are original pieces by student artists along the interior of the structure, allowing participants to peruse the piece much like an art gallery.

There is an additional element of student art that will be in the form of resin blocks leading up to the entrance of the piece. We are calling these curiosity capsules, and they serve as a way for students to capture what makes them curious at this moment in time. These curiosity capsules are filled with items students collected to share with the participants of Black Rock City.

“To me curiosity is just wondering about things that I don’t quite understand yet, or just want to know more about something. And, ah, one of the things that I’m actually most interested in is nature. Curiosity is important because without curiosity we don’t really learn anything new. And I mean, who would figure out that you could eat pineapple without being curious about it? I would like to meet the person who looked at that and thought that I could eat that. That and artichoke.” 

“I’m curious about how lightning strikes, because I wonder, like, how it comes down to the earth.

“I’m curious about, um, how horses um, see the world.

KATIE: 

I just love that kid who’s talking about, I mean, right, like, who really ever did look at a pineapple and think “Hmm, I should try eating that?”

STUART: 

It’s not intuitive at all.

KATIE: 

Exactly.

STUART: 

Next up, one artist that I was super fascinated by is bringing a very Afro futuristic kind of straight out of Wakanda. This a magnificent throne for her majestic presence. Tell me about Chelsea Odufu.

KATIE:

This will only be her second year in Black Rock City. Last year was her first time ever, but she has been practicing art on her own outside of the Black Rock City community. She was actually one of only 12 people selected to work with Kehinde Wiley, whose name you may know from having done the official portrait of Barack Obama. 

STUART: 

Right. 

KATIE: 

He has an artist residency program in Dakar in Senegal, and Chelsea was selected to be one of the 12 people as part of that program a couple of years ago. And so that really caught my eye when she applied for this throne. 

And also when she applied for the throne, she submitted an image that was clearly AI. And we don’t have a policy around yes or no with AI, but, again, what is this really going to be like? But part of our funding program is as much about the people and the crew behind the project that we’re really investing in, along with, you know, we are interested in really compelling art, but the stories behind the people who are doing it have so much to do with what appeals to us about things.

So Chelsea’s background as an artist in a lot of different media too, you know, a lot of video and other types of media. So we’re excited for her to get this chance to expand more into sculpture with her work. And she’s partnering with a longtime Burning Man artist, Abram, who’s got an organization called Liquid Pixel.

So she will have somebody to sort of mentor her and help her with the fabrication.

Chelsea Odufu: 

My name is Chelsea Odufu, and I’m super excited to be presenting my sculpture A Seat at The Throne for Burning Man’s Desert Arts Preview. I’m a visual artist, land based artist, but I’ve also started to venture and expand my practice into what makes me work, where I’m doing video installations, where I’m creating video sculptures made out of materials like bronze. And this is going to be my first time bringing a sculpture to Burning Man, but I’m super excited. 

I had such a great time at Burning Man, my first time there last year. I got engaged at Burning Man. It was 100% one of those times where I felt completely aligned with my universe as a marginalized artist, as a person of color, creating worlds and alternate realities, really creating this Afro futuristic aesthetic has been something that has been integral into the work that I’ve been making, because I’ve always found that in worldbuilding and creating alternate realities, it allowed me to be able to speak on issues that oftentimes might have been difficult for different community members to be able to kind of engage in that conversation.

A lot of the work that I do is really connected to magical realism and, this kind of, again, sci fi alternate reality that, kind of challenges the status quo in the way that, marginalized identities are preserved or presented in the now, we’re kind of allowing, you know, allowing all the stigmas connected and associated with their identity to be removed.

A Seat at The Throne actually came to my mind, after recently being spending a lot of time in the d’Ivoire, which is where I live in West Africa, and I was recently working on a project, really researching a con empire, the Chanty Kingdom, of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.

And obviously when you think about African empires, obviously there is a lot of regality and a lot of royalty that ultimately is associated with these kingdoms. And I really wanted to conceptualize some things, that ultimately kind of represented and brought this throne, this symbol of power that also had a very Afrocentric element to it, because oftentimes when we think of how when we think of regality, we think of kings and queens, you know, we oftentimes don’t associate that image with people of color.

I think that it’s something that’s very disruptive for me to bring a sculpture called A Seat at The Throne to Burning Man, a place that I would love to see more diversity in. And, I think it’s something that represents this desire, you know, for other groups of people to ultimately want to have a seat at the table, a seat at the throne.

I’m really excited to be bringing this sculpture to Burning Man, and I’m hoping that you guys get to see it on playa. Thank you so much for your support.

STUART: 

Great. My God, so much energy. I just feel exhausted thinking about someone who’s active in so many media. I feel my own career as an artist is… 

Did I ever tell you about the time I received my artistic license at Burning Man?

KATIE: 

Oh, literally?

STUART: 

Yeah. There’s a great project. So, people were going around filling out artistic licenses and giving them out to people. they got to the line where it’s like, what’s your what’s your medium? And I said, well, I’m a bullshit artist, and I’m still proudly have my bullshit artistic license hanging on the wall.

KATIE: 

Excellent. Frame it right next to that diploma.

STUART: 

Next up, let’s hear from NiNo. NiNo is a wonderful artist from Puerto Rico. He’s actually been on the program before. He’s bringing a frog this year.

KATIE: 

That’s right. A frog called Coquí. Which is an onomatopoeia, you know, the sound of that frog is like coquí, coquí. Last year,he made a giant fish. That was also, it was Atabey. 

STUART: 

Oh, yeah.

KATIE: 

The scales were made out of pizza pans. But that was a reference to the freshwater goddess of the Taino people in Puerto Rico. Because his work all involves some level of environmentalism, or sustainability or something around the climate in Puerto Rico. So the frog – I think part of it is making something that so small also make it like very big and mighty, but that it’s just such a presence in the lives of people that live on that island, that he wanted to bring that energy to Black Rock City.

NiNo: 

Hola. NiNo here. It’s quite an honor to be the first Puerto Rican artist who has brought art to Black Rock City. My first visit to Burning Man was in 2011, and it definitely made an impression and changed the way I saw the world, especially the art. Since 2015, I have been bringing several art installations to the playa, starting with my precious Got Framed and followed by three art installations I’ve received the Burning Man Honoraria Art Grant. You may remember the woody wise owl Múcaro, and then the metallic pizza pans leaping fish Atabey’s Treasure. And this year, in my unconscious romance with animals and my unwavering Puerto Rican pride, I present to you Coquí.

Imagine a scene in the lush Puerto Rican rainforest named El Yunque, where the air is thick with humidity and the night’s alive with a symphony of creatures. In this magical setting, a charming yet fierce Puerto Rican frog perches on a vibrant green leaf. As it rises, its tiny little body, its throat spans with pride ready to unleash its signature call. It is here when a Coquí embodies the essence of my homeland: resilient, spirited, and thoroughly charming. 

So now envision riding your bike in the arid desert and encountering a tall, tropical Coquí. At night, the synchronized lighting will attract participants like flies ready to be caught. Made out of steel interior structure and recycle with materials, whose mating call invites exploration inside his throat. Through the lounge area offered through Coquí a see-through throat will trigger a sense of exploration in curious individuals, circling our Coquí, until they find the entrance, they will enter to a rainforest sound bath of its enchanting call, “Coquí.”

My homeland, Puerto Rico, finds itself in constant crisis of environmental challenges. My intention is to be a guide and a voice, to bring not only joy and support, but also spread awareness about the state of our planet, and promote the idea of sustainability. Just like my previous projects, Múcaro and Atabey’s Treasure, Coquí continues to embody this mission, and was also originally named by the indigenous people of my enchanted island.

It is an honor for me, as both a Puerto Rican, as an artist, to bring the symbol of my homeland to our other home, Black Rock City. According to our research, not only is the first big Coquí ever made, it will be the first frog shaped art installation at Burning Man. Meio gracias, and see you on the playa.

KATIE: 

I just love NiNo. He’s actually one of the most fun artists that we’ve worked with all these years since 2015, and he is very kind with his time. He’s been mentoring a lot of younger Burning Man artists and helping them along the way. We offer these brown bag lunches for artists during our main season, and he’s always there, helping guide people towards different resources, and, so he’s just so lovely to work with.

STUART: 

What a sweetheart. 

Next we’re gonna talk about – I think you can say this thing is a giant music box zoetrope. It’s a big circular thing that makes music and makes running images from Chelsey Hathman. Is that an apt description of it? It’s pretty huge, it looks like.

KATIE: 

Yeah, it’s pretty huge. It’s probably 20-something feet in diameter and it’s up above your head. So when you walk in, the music box is above you and you’re looking up into eight smaller zoetropes that work within this music box. 

And so lots of gears and lots of spinning. You know, as the music box spins, it makes the music and as the zoetropes spin, it makes the images that are changing. So it’s kind of mixing these two systems of a visual spinning and then a, you know, auditory spinning that go together really, in a complementary way.

And what I loved about Chelsey speaking is that she designs exhibitions for the Exploratorium and so she’s smart and really good at thinking through how to build things and different systems working together. And she said even this project has been a big challenge. There came a point when, you know, she knew how to build a music box and she knew how to do the zoetropes, but those systems have to mesh and collaborate.

And she worked her way through it ultimately, and now is excited and moving forward with all of it, but that it took some real thinking.

STUART: 

All right. Let’s hear Chelsey speaking at the Desert Arts Preview.

Chelsey Hathman: 

Hi, I’m Chels. And I’m an exhibit engineer at the Exploratorium. I have a beautiful opportunity to work on whimsical projects with beautiful people. And no more is that more evident than my first time when I went to Burning Man. It was a beautiful experience. It was a hard experience. But it emblazoned me with a radical love for interactive art, and doing cool things with your friends.

And my first art was last year, 2023 with Wrenchasaurus Rex, also known as Lever, with me. That project was hard, but it was a beautiful experience to get to share with my friends. 

Always Another Sunrise is a custom music box that you can walk inside of. It is 20ft in diameter and 10 feet tall. The outer wall acts as a music tumbler that plays a custom song that invites whimsy and wonder. As you walk into the music box, you’ll be greeted by eight zoetropes rotating above head, playing an animation that is made by my friends. Each one of these animations will imbue you with a sense of gratitude, renewal and rebirth, and excitement for new projects.

Working on the engineering for this project was challenging. Trying to figure out how the gear ratios were going to mesh, and how I was going to get all of the mechanics into this form factor was something that I had underestimated. But once we got the opportunity to create a few prototypes, I knew we were going to be able to make this project happen.

And getting a chance to see a full scale version of the zoetrope was exactly what me and my team needed to get us super excited about pushing this project forward. Thank you for your time, and we’ll see you on playa. 

STUART: 

Yeah, I just love the engineering brain that it takes to put those systems together, that is really something.

KATIE: 

Absolutely.

STUART: 

It’s as much innovation as it is artistry. Okay. Next, who do we want to talk to? How about Mark Rivera?

KATIE: 

He’s another gem, also relatively new to Burning Man. In fact, it was NiNo, also from Puerto Rico, who introduced Mark to Burning Man. And the two of them are friends. And Nino did kind of help mentor him. And so Mark’s first project was last year in 2023. He brought the project, Jíbaro Soy, that some people may remember. It was kind of a countryman, standing tall with a straw hat, and these two machetes crossed in front of his body, and he was, his shirt was opened up so that his heart area revealed a barrio, or all these little houses, like a whole neighborhood tucked inside.

STUART:

Absolutely beautiful. He works out of The Generator in Reno. So not long ago I got to see that piece before it was installed. I believe that is now outside of the J Hotel in Reno?

KATIE: 

Yeah, yeah, it’s part of the permanent collection there along Fourth Street in Reno.

STUART: 

Congratulations to Mark for getting a piece out in the world, and for this new one that’s coming. Let’s hear about it.

Mark Rivera:

Hello, I’m Mark Rivera from Puerto Rico. I was honored to be here with everyone. Hello. This year, I’m building, sculpture called Habitat. I’m at Reno Generator. It’s a maker spot in Reno. I work here with other artists that are also going to Burning Man as well.

So the idea for this build came from last year’s build, Jíbaro Soy. It’s a Puerto Rican man with a ‘hood inside his body.

So for this build, I’m not using no computer programs, this all, freestyling it. No renders, no blueprints, no nothing. I’m just going to go freehand, and play by heart. The whole idea is to have a like neighborhood shaped as a giant heart. 

The Reno Generator’s very, very convenient because there’s other artists right next to me doing their art as well, that’s going to go to Burning Man. They help me out, they give me advice, that tell me where to buy things. They’re locals, I’m not. So I rent an apartment here in Reno, and moved over here for a couple of months to build. 

It’s a small little shop, but it’s all I need; a forklift, the machinery and welding room and this place is huge. There’s a bunch of stuff here. Like anything I need, I just grab.

And I’m here alone. I like to work at night. All of this, I built by myself. Little by little. Up to now. I’m hoping, like June and July, I get a crew to help me out build the tiny little homes. 

KATIE: 

He’s very humble and he doesn’t make this very widely known, but he was a very famous musician in Puerto Rico. He won something like 13 Grammys, Puerto Rican Grammys. 

STUART: 

What?

KATIE: 

He toured with this band. Yeah. And was known as Kidnetick and is very famous there locally, but he doesn’t make a big deal about that at all. Amazing what people – the creativity that people have and talk about different media from guitar to sculpture.

STUART: 

Another artist who is feeding my feelings of inadequacy. Thanks a lot, Mark. 

You know, I’ve always been a big fan of Five Ton Crane and their work, the Gothic Rocket Ship, all that wonderful stuff. And I understand that we have three artists associated with that group bringing something really epic this year.

KATIE: 

Yeah, the three artists are Cjay Roughgarden, Stephanie Shipman, and Jackie Scott.

STUART: 

Let’s talk about Naga and the Captainess.

KATIE: 

Yes, this is probably the biggest project that we’re funding this year in terms of, number of crew and size and complexity. It’s a sea serpent or a naga. Some people might recognize that term from various cultures: Sea serpents, dragons, that whole thing is a big part of many cultures. So you have this naga kind of emerging from the water. And I love projects that play with the playa surface as being something that you can dip below. So, the sea serpent is kind of swimming through the surface of the playa, right alongside a shipwreck of an old school kind of galleon style ship that’s half submerged in the water, partially submerged, and there’ll be whiskey barrels of fire all around it.

And it’s a whole environment. So, you know, thinking about curiosity, I love that this project, right away, there’s a narrative to it. You walk up and you’re like, what’s happening here? It really draws you in to go explore all the intricacies of what’s inside the ship and the whole environment.

Naga and the Captianess:

We are Cjay Roughgarden, Stephanie Shipman and Jacquelyn Scott, and we are delighted to be bringing Naga and the Captainess to Burning Man 2024. Leading this project together feels like a beautiful next step in the 15 year long big art journey we’ve been on as friends. The three of us met in 2009, working with Five Ton Crane, building the rig on Gothic Rocket Ship. Since then, we’ve become full time, self-employed working professionals in our respective fields of metalwork, woodwork, and set design. And we’ve also had the great pleasure of helping bring numerous big art projects to playa, and the Smithsonian, during this time, including Storied Haven, the Black Rock Lighthouse Service, The Folly, Paradisium, the Capitol Theater, and most recently, the Chapel of Babel.

It is such a joy to be at the helm of Naga and the Captainess. This project started as a seed in Cjay’s mind when she rediscovered her favorite children’s book, Cyrus the Unsinkable Sea Serpent. She approached Jackie and I about making a shipwreck to go with the sea serpent she was imagining. We were a resounding and excited YES. 

Naga and the Captainess consists of a 100 foot long metal sea serpent looming 22 feet above a 100 foot long shipwreck and debris field of cargo crates, treasure chests and flaming whiskey barrels. Participants will be able to explore all the parts of the ship, including the elaborate and elegant Captainess’s quarters, crow’s nest with working spyglass, as well as get up close and personal with beautiful Naga himself.

While we are keeping our Captainess’s identity a bit mysterious, her quarters will be full of details of her life story, as well as Naga’s. We hope to take people on a narrative journey that leaves them pondering about the relationship of our two protagonists. Did they know about each other? What treasures do each of them covet? What do you personally consider to be treasure in your own life?

We’re so grateful to the org for giving us such a generous grant, and are thrilled to create some deep playa magic for everyone this year. Not wanting our story to stop after Burning Man, we have already started talking with some post-playa placement locations. This means that from the start we have been engineering everything to the highest standards required for public placement.

This adds both time and expense to the project, but we know it will be worth it to bring the tale of Naga and the Captainess to an even bigger audience. Our build is well underway and we can’t wait to show everyone on playa. Are you in? YEAH!!!

STUART: 

Yeah, I am also a big fan of art that plays with the surface of the playa as if it were a surface of water. I can think back to the first submarine that I saw out there, with its periscope, and a little bit of conning tower sticking out of the ground; Pepe Ozan’s Dreamer.

KATIE: 

Yeah, I remember my first year was 2000, and there was a Pegasus that was emerging out of the ground surface, and I was just like, whoa, how clever.

STUART: 

So who else is coming? I want to put in a couple of plugs for some of my old friends that I know on the Honoraria list: the Iron Monkeys? You just can’t keep them down. They’re coming again, aren’t they?

KATIE: 

They are coming again! They’re this great collective from the Seattle area; metalworking they’re known for, and all kinds of interesting flame effects. The project they’re bringing this year is called Glimmer, and it’s a big crown, essentially, resting on the ground. It’s a grand crown. It’s got kind of steel vines and some colorful resin mixed in, and steel flowers and gems. And in the middle there’s a fire pit with some benches, so it’ll create a nice environment for people to hang out.

STUART: 

I know that they do a lot of mentoring too. We’ve had Kay on the show, Kay Morrison, and she’s told us some great stories about helping other artists who are in need, maybe on their first trip out to the desert, because they’ve been coming since… I think their first trip was in a covered wagon with all their blacksmith gear, so…

KATIE: 

Yeah, they do a lot of ‘boots on the ground’ mentoring, helping on playa, you know, when someone’s stranded out there, you know, they can’t leave easily to get whatever they need, and yeah, they’ve really gone and saved people.

STUART: 

And, oh my God, are Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson bringing yet another bear? They’ve done so many bears covered in pennies. What is it this year?

KATIE: 

Well, it’s an evolution of that. So, remember last year they brought the Lincoln Bear? It was kind of like the Lincoln Memorial all covered in pennies. This year, they’re bringing a project called Rushmore. It’s like Mount Rushmore. The four heads are actually animals instead, and they are North America’s top animal predators. And they’re posed similar to Mount Rushmore, which, you know, was the US Presidents. And for a change, they’re going to employ different types of coins. So instead of all pennies, the animals will all be different colors, different shades. So they’re also collecting nickels and dimes this year to make the different looks of all the different animals.

STUART: 

So their fundraising effort, I mean, you go to nickels, you just, your fundraising needs go up by a factor of five, right, from pennies?

KATIE: 

Exactly. Right. Yes. In fact I was talking to Robert Ferguson and he was joking that they don’t need quarters yet, but that next year they may be thinking about the Quarter Horse.

STUART: 

Oh, they actually have also, I believe, sold a piece, sold the Lincoln bear to Reno, to that hotel. So, congratulations there to the Fergusons. I look forward to seeing you out there.

KATIE: 

A lot of their bears have civic placement in a range of different places. There’s one in Tahoe. There was one in the UK for Chatsworth. A lot of them have wound up in different collections of civic placement.

STUART: 

People want coin covered bears. 

KATIE: 

Right? Yeah. In Mountain View at the Google campus. 

One project I’m excited about this year is called Carried by the Wind, and it’s by an artist named Cameron Mason, who has been a volunteer in The ARTery, but has brought art to Black Rock City over the years. And she is a textile artist. And so she has this really interesting way of dying fabric using ice that makes really beautiful colors and patterns.

And so her concept here is, you know there are different kinds of winds at different places you go in the world and they all feel differently on you. And her question is, what color would that be? What color is this wind? And so she’s taken the idea of different types of wind and is trying to work them into her hand dyed fabrics that will be blowing in her project Carried by the Wind.

STUART: 

Beautiful. 

The Man Base, the Man Pavilion, this year is based on a design by Jen Lewin who is a, many-times artist out at Burning Man before. People call it an octopus, but I think it looks more like a starfish, and it’s one of those that’s going to look fantastic from a drone shot because it has eight sinuous arms that are all ramps. They could all be traveled up to gaze on the Man. It’s pretty unique and very different from other Man bases that we’ve had in the past. Looking forward to seeing that Burn.

KATIE: 

Yeah, and different from her past work, like she’s known for the work she did, LED work on the ground in a different pattern that people could jump from light to light and it would light up. And the last few years she’s done these ursas, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor. 

It’s interesting you say an animal for that Man Base, but when I see that, I think more like a fjord. I think of something more like a mountain like that I’m moving through.

STUART: 

Well, from the ground perhaps.

KATIE: 

MmmHm. Right.

STUART: 

It’s a very abstract shape. And you can project into it what you like. But, it’s curious, which is why I like it and why we chose that design!

KATIE: 

Another fun project coming this year is a piece called Mona Mushroom, that’s by the artist from China who brought that rabbit last year.

STUART: 

The inflatable rabbit?

KATIE: 

Yes, but not inflatable. It looks inflatable, but it’s actually made out of stainless steel, made to look inflatable. A lot of craftsmanship goes into something like that. Yeah, do you remember how funny it was when people put plastic bags on that rabbit’s feet when it was rainy times?

STUART: 

Yes. It became iconic of last year’s Mud Man.

KATIE: 

Yes. Well, this year she’s bringing a mushroom. Her name is Mona, so it’s called the Mona Mushroom. And eight meters tall, so really large pink metal sculpture of a mushroom. Same kind of look where it seems inflatable, but is actually stainless steel.

STUART: 

Mushrooms – little on theme there, maybe. I don’t know. “EAT ME.”

KATIE: 

Kind of always on theme in some way.

STUART: 

Exactly. Doesn’t matter Burning Man’s theme… The theme is Burning Man, I believe. Alright. 

The next project. I believe it was voted ‘best art project ever’ by the Black Rock City Gate Crew. It is Coney McConeface.

KATIE: 

Yes, it’s Burning Man, and we can call our projects whatever we want. Coney McConeface. It’s a 60 foot tall wooden traffic cone.

STUART: 

Why? Because traffic cones!

KATIE: 

Yes.

STUART: 

I mean, Gate loves them. They live in a world of traffic cones. I saw a traffic cone installation out there once. I don’t know who did it, but it was just sort of an abstract maze of cones of three different sizes leading to nowhere. So, yeah, there’s something about that orange pylon in the sky but, 60 foot tall! Tell me it doesn’t have AI, and it doesn’t talk to you!

KATIE: 

Only the video they have online has AI and talks to you. They’ve done this really clever job of inserting this faceover, as if the cone is talking.

STUART: 

Okay, let’s have a listen to that.

Coney McConeface’s Team: 

My given name is Coney McConeface. I am currently a figment of a small group of people’s imaginations. These people are going to build me as a work of art, standing tall in the Nevada desert at Burning Man 2024. Listen closely as there is more to this than what meets the eyes and ears, and you will not know until you know. Then you will know that not only is playfulness afoot, there is an engaging mythology riddled with metaphor and insight. 

A lowly traffic cone. No! I shall be a genuine work of art that will be transported to the heights of deity towering over the masses with whom I have only previously been at waist height. 

We are the Burning Man artists who created the 2011 Temple of Transition and Mazzy Goddess of the Empty Sea. This year we are building and building another large scale art piece, Coney McConeface: the life and death of a traffic cone. At 60 feet tall, Coney will be the biggest honorarium art piece burnt on Playa this year. Coney will appear to teach us his cautionary mantra “Don’t be a dick. Embrace the nonsense. Make things better.” 

Participants will be encouraged to make things better in small ways on playa, and throughout their lives.

We need your help to make Coney the most magnificent traffic cone possible. 

So what have you learned so far? Building big art for Burning Man is hard. You’re a crew of Artists who live around the world, including from New Zealand, Mexico, Australia, South Africa and Canada. It makes everything a bit more complicated. It’s been very challenging to find a suitable and affordable build space in Reno this summer. And the fundraising efforts so far have not been as successful as we’d hoped. We are carrying on regardless, and there are many ways you can support Coney.

You can sign up for a Coney Guardian shift. Join our Friday night burn perimeter. Develop a cone based prank, or shtick, or other nonsense. To tell us how you can help, please email coney@conecophony.com or fill in the participation questionnaire at www.conecophony.com

KATIE: 

These are the guys that are behind the temple in 2011. Do you remember the Temple of Transition, the big white one with the arches and the earth harp and all of that stuff? This is the same folks that brought that temple that are bringing the cone.

STUART: 

I doubt that it will have the same kind of like gravity that the temple installation has. Seems a little more lighthearted.

KATIE: 

Yes, lighthearted. 

They have a whole crew of folks from around the world who are going to be doing cone shenanigans around the project and around the city, so they’re going to activate it in a lot of ways. And it’s going to burn. It’s going to be the biggest burn this year besides the man and the temple, hopefully with pyro, if all goes according to plan.

STUART: 

Cone antics! You know, a traffic cone is basically just a megaphone waiting to happen. 

Alright, speaking of the temple, yes, we will have a temple again this year in Black Rock City, as we have every year since 2000. Tell us about the Temple of Together.

KATIE: 

I’m excited about the Temple of Together. Conceptually it’s, I think, very important in these times when things feel pretty divisive and it’s really about the concept of togetherness, coming together – both on an inner level, but then also kind of interpersonally, and then societally or culturally, coming together.

And so what that looks like in sculpture form is that the main entrance on 12 o’clock there, like right up the promenade, will be two hands that are coming together as if in prayer. So people will walk through under these hands. The temple is not religious, but it kind of brings you into that space of sanctity.

The look of it is very, I would say gothic. There’s a lot of spires and points, and it has a little bit of a David Best feeling in terms of the delicateness of some of the construction materials, like it has a real lightness to it. And then in the center there is something that will be like a light that shoots out all the way through the top.

So the idea is that when we do bring together all these separate parts of ourself, or people in society that come together, when we come together, this unity can kind of shine forward.

STUART: 

And then we burn it down!

Caroline Ghosn: 

Why would you spend so much time and love and energy making something with other people, and then intentionally burn it down? Immediately destroy it? That’s kind of crazy, but how is it different from our experience here as humans and as the circle of life? I will go back to the earth, and so will everybody I ever meet. Why not make peace with that? And maybe have a life that feels more fully lived?

My name is Caroline Ghosn, aka Glitter Kitty on fire, and I’m the lead artist for the 2024 Burning Man Temple.

We wanted to share a little bit about why we went about creating this, and what the intention is around that space. What started to emerge was this idea of hands coming together in prayer and representing the union of all of the parts of yourself, like all the parts that you don’t want to face, accepting and integrating those with all the parts of yourself that you already accept.

And the light that emerges from that union being so powerful. To see this archway shape emerge and this idea of like the energy moving through the structure. This became a spire of light that cut through the entire building and emerges out onto the playa. The whole goal is to really welcome a diversity in experiences. 

I truly, truly hope that the Temple of Together offers a space that feels like home. The structure that emerges on playa at the end of August is actually not the temple. The structure that we’ll see on playa is the emergence of the temple experience that’s starting now. It’s not a sculpture. It’s not an art project. It’s not a building. The temple is the process and the temple is the container. It is a communal space. The safe and beautiful environment for people to have the full range of the human experience. It no longer belongs to me, and it will soon belong to a team as we build it. And then once we put it on fire, it won’t belong to either of us. It will belong to an entire community. And when we burn it, we’ll say goodbye as well. And it’ll belong to the ether. It’ll be gone. 

The temple is a series of transformations, and at the end of the day, it all burns. And if you can see the beauty in that, you will really experience the richness of life in a different way. There’s just something so sacred and special about temple. And our intention is to remember that with every single action that we take. So thank you. We invite you to join us in this.

STUART: 

So I just love that clip. She’s just like, we put all this love into build this beautiful thing and burn it. Why would we do that? Yeah. Yeah, it’s a fair question.

KATIE: 

Yeah. I love how she talks about how the temple isn’t the structure itself, because one year I served as the, in the burn perimeter for the temple. And when you’re the burn perimeter, you’re not supposed to look back at the structure behind you burning. And as you know, in my role, all the time I put into the temple, I was like, oh my gosh, I can’t even see this thing burn after all the time I’ve put. But I had committed to doing the perimeter. 

And as it was burning, I was looking out at all these faces in front of me, some really close. And just like this sea and sea of faces, and the faces all started to light up as the fire got bigger and bigger. They were reflecting this glow. And I just had this very profound moment in my heart, kind of like, oh, this is the temple. This is what’s happening. The way these people are lighting up, some tears streaming, some joy, like a range of emotions, but like, that’s it. It’s not the thing that’s happening behind me.

STUART: 

Yeah, this this temple really does embody that idea that it is about the people. I mean, even the hands pressed together. I mean, really, that is often an expression of, a recognition of, the divine in you, in the other person. Right? So we bring our own divinity. BYOD, people. Burning Man is not a religion. It just kind of acts like one if you want it to be.

KATIE: 

And Caroline’s just been an amazing lead artist. She’s such a pro. She’s really showing, there’s so many leadership skills that you need to run that kind of project. It’s not so much about the construction skills, but she’s just doing a fantastic job like bringing the community together.

STUART: 

So, just in rough numbers, a temple crew like that is how many people and what kind of budget?

KATIE: 

Well, on playa there are about, we provide about 150 tickets. So that’s, you know, how many are building there. This crew is really open, and they are doing their build at a  place called The Loom in Oakland. And you can just get on their list and come for a day if you want. So, I haven’t tracked how many they’re up to now.

Here we are at this time of year. But I think will be a much greater number of crew participating this year than in other years, because it’s not like you have to commit at the beginning and then, you know, that’s your only chance. 

And one of the things we look for when we select a temple is a design that has a lot of opportunities for unskilled workers to participate in a meaningful way, not just do some repetitive task over and over. And that’s one of the things that’s great about this design and about the way that they’re welcoming people in, any time.

STUART: 

And good fundraising skills because like Honoraria projects, I believe that we fund only a fraction of the total budget of the temple.

KATIE: 

Yeah. The temple grant is $150,000, which, at least I’m pleased to say it’s increased this year and have been $100,000 for a number of years. So that’s great., with the cost of everything going up, I’m happy that we’re offering $150,000. But all told, things generally can reach up to half a million. So it’s a significant fundraising effort on their part.

STUART: 

Right, well, we didn’t know we needed a temple in the old days, but now no one can imagine Black Rock City without it. So I’m really happy, it looks really gorgeous. 

Well, I can’t thank you enough for joining me today, Katie Hazard. I’m super psyched about the art that’s coming out this year. I know you are too.

KATIE: 

Exactly. Yeah. My team and I are just thrilled about the things we have selected and all the other work that’s coming in besides these that we’ve highlighted. Yeah, like you said, there are almost 400 projects coming to Black Rock City this year. So, I’m even still trying to learn what all of them are, and once we get out there, you know, trying to see them all as much as I can, but impossible to do.

I think if we approach it with a good sense of curiosity, we’ll see as much as we can.

STUART: 

Boom. Going out on the theme. And I’m sure if I don’t talk to you in the next few months, I’m sure I’ll hear from you in October when you need a new theme.

KATIE: 

Yeah, absolutely. I’ll be knocking on your door.

STUART: 

Thanks again.

KATIE: 

Thanks so much, Stuart.

STUART: 

That was the fabulous Katie Hazard, who heads Burning Man’s Art Department talking about just a few of the fabulous artists who are bringing their work to Black Rock City this year.

And so concludes another episode of Burning Man LIVE, the official podcast of the Philosophical Center of Burning Man Project. Made possible by you, all you lovely listeners, especially those of you who leave a review, those of you who tell a friend, those of you who maybe sent us the occasional piece of mail at live@burningman.org.  

Thanks to all the hard working artists and crews of Black Rock City, all 400 of them, and all of you who helped fund that art in Black Rock City, whether it’s directly to the artists or through Burning Man Project, by leaving a donation at donate.burningman.org. 

Thanks to my co-host Katie Hazard and the whole team behind the amazing 2024 Desert Arts Preview extravaganza: Kye Horton, Justin Katz, spec Guy, Steve Heist, kbot, Weapons Grade, Brody Scotland… You know who you are and know you are loved.

Thanks as always to the unusual suspects of the Burning Man Live production cabal: Vav Michael Vav, kbot, ActionGirl, Allie, Tyler, DJ Toil.

And, as always, thanks Larry! 

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