Burning Man 2006 art project

This project was conceived while at Burning Man in 2004. So much of the experience of burning man revolved around the playa, wearing the playa, breathing the playa, eating the playa, that it seemed to make perfect sense to make art with the playa. The ephemeral nature of the event, the ephemeral nature of our own existence, led me to design the following piece. I brought home a small jar of playa to see if it could be molded, but of course forgot to do that test. This year, I had great intentions of testing the nature of playa but unfortunately arrived recovering from a very nasty cold. Late in the game I was finally able to test my idea, and was very pleased with the result. Below is the piece completed to the extent that time allowed. Each bust was molded from the playa with nothing but water and the raw playa itself. One was done in the morning, and one in the late afternoon for the last two days of the event. The progression of decay was very nice, and the color change as each bust dried was great.

Daytime composite

Nighttime photo

The final piece, to be “installed” on the playa at some future date will be 12 spaces, arraigned in a circle (read clock face), to have a new bust cast every 12 hours. By delineating the space first, even with just one or two busts in place, the viewers will have an idea of what is to come. There are 12, 12 hour intervals between the start of burning man and the night the man burns. So on the night of the burn, all 12 busts will be in place. Depending on weather, the first should be in quite a state of disrepair, nearly returning to the playa completely, with the latest in pristine concision. The shape of the clock face is appropriate to the passage of time. I am looking forward to completing the final piece, hopefully in 2007…

Rick