B u r n l o g

This is most exciting! The 2008 “Honorariums” (grantees) have been posted! I could quite easily spend all day (and the next) greedily perusing the entire long list. Apparently, the kind folks at Burning Man have given a higher number of 38 total grants this year (up from the usual 30 or so). Also, they received more international proposals than ever before. Looks like an amazing year for art (as well as the usual WTF!? projects) on the Playa! See below from Jack Rabbit Speaks:

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ANNOUNCING … THE 2008 BURNING MAN HONORARIUM PROJECTS

The Burning Man Art Department is pleased to announce the funded projects for 2008. This year we are funding 38 projects, an increase from our usual 30 or so, as we are funding more small projects. Less than 1/3 of the projects are from the Bay Area, and we received many more proposals from abroad than ever before. We have four overseas projects this year: two from London, one from Amsterdam, and one from Wales. (Note: grants for the Man Base art installations will be announced in a future JRS.)

The funded projects are:

Altered State, by Kate Raudenbush, New York, NY (Click on New: Altered State)

Amazing Jellyfish from Y12K (PDF), by Jared Gallardo, Salt Lake City, UT

Basura Sagrada, by Shrine, Tuktuk, and the Basura Sagrada Collaboratory – Pasadena, CA and Portland,

Bummer, by Myk Henry, New York, NY/Geneva, Switzerland
“Bummer” is a super size Humvee measuring 38 feet long x 18 feet wide x 16 feet high. Half of the Hummer will be painted in military khaki and the other half a bright sporty color. This sculpture epitomizes this country’s obsession with power and the Jekyll and Hyde nature of the American dream.

Celtic Forest, by Laura Kimpton, Bob Hoffman and Jeff Schomberg, Nicasio, CA

Chasing the American Dream, by Hedy Siroco, Wynnewood PA

DreamYourTopia Checkpoint (also at ePlaya), by DADARA, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Drum Wagons, by Quill Hyde, Brooklyn NY

Elevation, by Michael Christian, Berkeley, CA
Elevation is a fully climbable sculpture constructed of winding tube steel ladders that elevate to a seated perch for one, on its peak. The height of the piece will be 56 feet.

Fleeble Flobbler, by Charlie Smith and Jaime Laudet, Atlanta, GA

Free Flight, by David Boyer, Reno NV
“Free Flight” is a sculpture that celebrates the ultimate freedom, the escape from the bounds of earth. Consisting of six wind-driven kinetic birds, this sculpture is in constant flux as the winds of the Black Rock grow, recede, shift and change.

Hand of Man, by Christian Ristow, Taos, New Mexico

Harmonic Geometry, by Glenn Easley and Rikk Carey, Vashon, WA
glenn.Easley at gmail.com

Hydrogen Economy, by False Profit Labs, San Francisco, CA

Illusion, by Benson Trent, Provo, UT

Ketchup, by Bruce Bender, Marshall, NC

Legends of America, by James Cole, Auburn, CA

Lepidodgera, by Rachel Norman, Mike Thielvoldt, Lira Filippini, and Jake Haskell, Palo Alto, CA

Man Gwyn Man Draw?, by Defaid Daf a Joe, Wales

McEnlightenment, by Michael Brown and Violet McKeon, San Diego, CA

Mutopia, by the Flaming Lotus Girls, San Francisco, CA

Net Work, by David Bengali, New York, NY

Nowhere Ominibus, by Pete Johnson, London, UK

Pictures of You – Images from Iran, by Yechdosay Chahar, Crested Butte, CO

Pool, by Jen Lewin, Boulder, CO

Popaver Rubrum Giganticum, by Gary Miller, Wyndmoor, PA
Popaver rubrum giganteum (giant red poppy) consists of three hundred 10′ tall poppies in various shades of red. The design allows for variation in the layout and placement of the individual elements.

Pswarm (PDF), by the Dept. of Spontaneous Combustion, Oakland, CA

Pyrocardium, by False Profit Labs, San Francisco, CA

Shiva Vista, by Dave King, Reno, NV

Shrine of Fortuna, by Art Farm, Graton, CA

Shrine to the Oven Mitt, by Steven Goodman, Mountain View, CA

Spaghetti West Ten, by the Mutoid Waste Co., London, UK
A 12′ long, by 15′ tall motorized apocalyptic horse, part beast, part rust-ravaged machine, pulls a punked-out parody of a pioneer’s covered wagon, which contains a stage for musical acts and performance.

Swarm, by Michael Prados, San Francisco, CA

Tantalus, by Peter Hudson, San Francisco, CA
Tantalus is Peter’s fourth large scale zoetrope. Participants must engage a laboriously intense mechanism that puts a modern spin on the myth of Tantalus while reflecting on the seemingly dwindling fruits of such labor.

The Cave, by Chassy Cleland and Henya Emmer, New York, NY

Wheel of Thwarted Ambition, by Anton Viditz-Ward, Telluride, CO
This kinetic fire sculpture represents change, rebirth and creation. Driven by a hand crank, a wheel containing buckets of burning wood is spun around, creating a ring of fire and producing lots of fireflies.

You are All so Many of Me, by Michael Emery, Santa Cruz, CA
A multitude of small cut mirrors provides the opportunity for both literal and metaphorical reflection. During the day, the viewer perceives a cubist self-portrait smiling back. At certain points during the night this reflection will be enhanced with a variety of images projected by LCD upon the mirrors. The viewer is invited to interact with images of fire and water as well as a racial/gender spectrum of other humans. The viewer is invited to contemplate, and perhaps to help create the American Dream of FREEDOM FOR ALL.

Zsu Zsu: The Crybaby Drama Queen, by Mister Jellyfish, Sparks, NV

Who Is Zsu Zsu?

“Zsu Zsu the crybaby drama queen won’t you come play with meeee,
I built you this trailer for Burning Man so you would care for meee.”

“Zsuuu Zsu, Zsuuu Zsu… Leeeve me a geeft then go ahwey!
…Zsuuu Zsu, Zsuuu Zsu… Eetz so fuckeeng HOT.”

UPDATE – More Zsu Zsu madness

“Zsu Zsu noooo! No Zsu Zsu, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO….”

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RESPECT THE ART: IF YOU DIDN’T MAKE IT, DON’T BREAK IT!!

Over the last several years, Burning Man has seen a disturbing trend growing in Black Rock City: more and more art installations are getting vandalized or damaged every year, including everything from tagging to outright destruction.

Artists work exceptionally hard to create artwork for the playa at great personal expense. Understandably, they are deeply affected when their work is destroyed or damaged … and participants who would have otherwise experienced the piece as it was intended are also affected. While some participants may see vandalism as their personal form of “radical self-expression”, ultimately, personal expression needs to be tempered by the realities of co-existing within a community, which requires mutual respect to thrive.

Please help us spread the word: if you didn’t make it, don’t break it! Help stop mindless vandalism to artwork on the playa.

Some of the artists tell their stories below, in a letter to our community from Kate Raudenbush, who created the Guardian of Eden last year. We reprint them for you here, in the hopes that their words speak more persuasively than any missive we could craft. We know that most JRS readers are unlikely to be the culprits of vandalism; we hope you will help by taking time to share in watching out for the artwork in our city.

Related Musings

• Busy, Busy & 2008 Honorariums