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Burning Man: The Art

Temple of Forgiveness

Temple
of Forgiveness

The first in a series of Burning Man reports discusses the art. This is only one facet of Burning Man but the most important. This is why we go. (Map this!)

Every year a city rises from the flat expanse of the Black Rock desert. It is a city of art, exuberance, and wonder. The starkness of the playa provides a perfect canvas and a perfect stage for that which unfolds. And unfold it does for the playa is a chrysalis. Sculptures of gigantic proportions, heart thumping raves, mutant vehicles, and performance art all vie for the attention of the sleep deprived and exhausted participant. Every year, on Saturday, the man burns. Why they build him and why he burns is all left to the interpretation of the viewer.

The many phases of the man.
Some killjoy burned him a few days early but he was rebuilt!

Equally amazing art dotted the playa. A large oil derrick was surrounded by colossal figures praying to it as if it were a god, to indicate our dependence on the mighty crude. Gasoline, as much as you want, till it runs out. A tesla coil was in among the figures signifying… what the heck, tesla coils are cool, they don’t NEED to signify anything! By the temple two big rig intertwined in a downward spiral of dependence. For those ambitious enough to climb inside the big rigs there was a garden about half way up.

There is so much art that many days was insufficient to see it all.
Every night we slept at 2:00 AM, waking at 5:30 AM the next day.

3 Responses to “Burning Man: The Art”

  1. Vinay says:

    Ooh groovy pictures!

  2. madhuri says:

    Nice pictures! i didnt see the tesla worshipper. i was looking up BM website yesterday and realized that i probably got to see 10% of what was there. Wonder where the rest of the art was hidden!

  3. Shreesh says:

    We missed a lot of the art right in front of us. It just seemed to sprout from the playa as if it had never been there.

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