What comes to mind when you picture Burning Man? Perhaps it’s a clan of headdress-wearing festival-goers gyrating in a magical-fungi-induced rager, inexplicably evading human combustion from the scorching Nevada desert. Perhaps you don’t know what to picture at all.
In an attempt to demystify the Burning Man enigma, I discovered it’s an experience all its own. Often misattributed alongside Coachella & Bonnaroo, this festival has no mainstream musical lineup, no ferris wheel, and no Bachelor alumni trying to remain #relevant.
Burning Man is an annual pilgrimage of 75,000 “Burners” to the ephemeral Black Rock City celebrating creative arts, community, and uninhibited self-expression. Sculptors, artists, technologists, and creatives alike bring their interpretations of the annual theme (this year’s theme was “artificial intelligence”) in the form of large-scale sculptures, interactive art exhibits, small-form art, and more. When it’s over, this “crucible of creativity” is ceremonially deconstructed, returning to a blank canvas of desert where Burning Man awaits resurrection next year.
When taking a deeper look into this year’s installments, I discovered several badass women who are quite literally lighting up Burning Man (we see you, Jessica Levine and your gigantic LED-lit flower robot!). Check out her work and that of four other mind-blowing, awe-inspiring female artists creating otherworldly art from this year’s “Burn.”
Jessi Sprocket - Baba Yaga
(Image credit: Doug Quinton via Instagram)
Inspired by the slavic myth of the great witch Baba Yaga, artist, writer, and “serial maker” Jessi Sprocket and the Baba Yaga’s Book Club bring the legend to life with an immersive, 28-foot witches’ hut. The hut is complete with chicken legs intentionally-poised for takeoff, should the house feel threatened and need to make a run for it. Sprocket designed her exhibit to invite festival-goers to explore the intersection of the mechanical and natural worlds. Says Sprocket on her witchy muse, “She straddles the worlds of nature and humanity living like so many witches, on the edge of the woods acting as a liaison into the supernatural realm. She is one of the oldest matriarchs and is neither good or evil, but something in-between.”
As in the myth, participants may ascend the staircases within the hut to test the old witch with a story, joke, or riddle, and Sprocket has enlisted volunteers to play the part. Because participation is one of Burning Man’s 10 principles, the version of the witch you meet is reflective of your character. Will you meet the trickster, the fairy godmother, or the evil crone?
Jessica Levine - FloBot
(Photo credit: Jessica Levine via Instagram)
Sculptor Jessica Levine ( what’s up #womenwhoweld ) builds a larger-than-life steel flora jungle-gym as one of this year’s honorarium pieces (recipient of a prestigious Black Rock City Honoraria Grant) in Flobot. Burners are invited to climb this robotic blossom from its suspension-spring roots into its immersive, mechanical pistil, following its journey as it blossoms. But of course, this is meant to provoke more than recess nostalgia. The symbolic steel structure serves as a reminder that even the deepest parts of ourselves (our roots), though not as beautiful as the colorful petals we show off to the world, are integral to our whole self and ultimately who we become -- even if we try to bury the dark parts of our soul. Says Levine, “FloBot is a robot-inspired, LED-lit collection of moving pieces that serves as a meditation on finding safety in your roots.” Upon entering the flowery tower, participants are metaphorically getting inside FloBot’s head, a process that is representative of all of life’s strenuous-yet-strengthening factors that try to deter you. Ultimately, you’re grounded in your standstill roots. External factors will not uproot you, so to speak... ;)
Sara Von Roenn - Opening the Closet
(Image credit: VoiceTribune.com)
It hit artist Sara Von Roenn after attending a LGBTQ+ panel: there was a generation’s worth of LGBTQ+ history no one was in any rush to save. Cue the blueprints for her 2018 Burning Man installation: Opening The Closet. A veteran Burner, Sara even quit her job to work as a carpenter’s apprentice to bring this idea to life and honor the stories she feared would be lost.
Sara Von Roenn’s labor of love was worth it. Her interactive 8x20-foot closet catapults you into a world of LGBTQ+ hardships. The shelves emit audio interviews from a seven-year collection of personal stories of struggle. Behind the facade of clothes (which yes, you can crawl behind) are handwritten messages from the LGBTQ+ community representing individuals’ fears and hopes. Inside the pull-out drawers you’ll find a mini-Smithsonian of LGBTQ+ history, including photos of every transgender person murdered in the U.S. this year (over 25) and empty bottles of the AZT 'cocktails' taken during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s
On Opening the Closet, Roenn says, “It’s been really neat to see my non-LGBTQ+ friends encounter it, because they come away with a deeper sense of being a part of that community, and feeling like they can talk about it and step up, and that’s been really inspiring.”
Rebekah Waites - Singularity
(Image Credit: Artsy.net)
For this year’s Burn, Los-Angeles based Rebekah Waites and the Singularity Crew constructed Waites’ second large-scale art piece as a complement to her 2013 Church Trap. “I came to the conclusion one day that my brain was essentially acting as a point of singularity and replaying repetitive childhood memories on an infinite loop,” Waites explains. While in a therapy session to treat her depression, Waites suddenly connected the dots between traumatic childhood events and who we become as adults. Singularity is her physical manifestation of the mental traps we create for ourselves (I’m sure I’m not alone when I say I could think of a few...) Featuring towering layers of birdcages and trapped houses, Singularity represents how we trap these memories, and, too often, how we let these memories inhibit us when we really should let them free. Easier said than done, of course -- a reality the piece also reflects. Ultimately, Waites hopes this representation inspires others struggling with depression to recognize their personal rock bottom and work towards climbing out towards a more positive place
Natali Leduc - Jokeatron 5200
(Image Credit : Facebook Jokeatron 5200)
The comedic trope of slippin’ on a banana peel gets a robotic upgrade with Canadian artist Natali Leduc’s Jokeatron 5200 (the only Canadian project that was awarded an honorarium grant this year, thank you very much) Jokeatron 5200 is a 12x24-foot diameter steel banana peel that, but of course, a prankster robot threw on the ground. Wait, are robot bananas biodegradable?
Enter this gigantic metal-plated fruit where you can record any joke to your liking, that will then be broadcast outside the sculpture for fellow Burners to hear, and with any luck, get a laugh out of em. From dad jokes to dirty punchlines, all manifestations of humor are guaranteed to be well-received here, courtesy of a pre-recorded laugh track. Noting that robots have not yet mastered jokes, Leduc explains, “Even if your joke is lame, you’ll get a laugh.”
The goal of this installment, if it wasn’t obvious: “To spread some much-needed joy to the world,” says Leduc.
Here’s hoping to see even more talented women represented at next year’s Burn. Petition to rename Burning (Wo)Man, anyone?
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