As the 2019 Burning Man season kicks into gear, Burning Man Arts is thrilled to announce the art installations selected for Black Rock City Honoraria Grants.
Some Insights into Our Selection Process
In the Art Department, we celebrate ALL artists, we fund some artists, and we give as much as we can. It is important to note that the projects we fund reflect an experience we hope to create, rather than a value judgment we are trying to impart.
When we sit down to review proposals, we intend to select and fund a range of artworks. We’re always thinking about interactivity and diversity, such as verticality, horizontal ‘fields’, playfulness, inventiveness, artist history with us (we want to honor long-standing artists while also supporting brand new artists and plenty of folks in between), the environment we will create, relationship to the annual theme, and the sheer creativity.
This year, we sat down with 340 proposals and arrived at 190 we thought we’d like to fund. That meant we needed to let go of 117 artworks to arrive at the 70-some artworks we can fund with the resources we have.
There is so much fantastic work, and often the rudimentary sketch is the basis for an amazing artwork, and the ‘never been an artist’ project could turn into an incredible lifelong career. We work to create a vibrant collection, and then we work to keep the door open for anyone else to register and join.
Our Dedication to Support
Each year, at least 75% of the artworks on playa come without cash support from Burning Man Project. We are serious about our commitment to support ALL artists, so there are many other ways that we help artists to ensure their projects are successful.
We build relationships with each artist through the Art Department, ARTery and Art Support Services (ASS), pre event and on playa. Pre-event, we review every project for safety, materials, lighting, fire, Leave No Trace, anchoring etc.; we communicate individually with every single artist; we respond to hundreds of questions; and we connect artists with resources to find solutions or generally help their project. On playa, the Art Support Services team checks in regularly with artists during the build to see what resources they might need.
In many cases, the projects receive extra support such as tickets, heavy equipment, and promotion via the Burning Man website and Jackrabbit Newsletter, which encourages others to give time and resources to the artists.
And we truly bring all the heart we can to all of it. This includes the dedicated teams of 200+ volunteers who staff the ARTery, think about art discovery and artist appreciation, and support projects with fire.
Highlights and Themes
This year, the artworks will reflect our sense of FUN (Toxic Unicorn, Fucking Useless, Purr Pods), our sense of PLACE (The Spa at Lake Lahontan, Awful’s Gas & Snack, Mega Mega, The Dollhouse, Intersection X), and our love of the GRAND (The Folly, Reared in Steel’s Fire Kethedral, and The Monumental Mammoth).
You will find places to rest and be quiet, unique creations you can’t yet imagine, and some striking sculptural work. And there are many interpretations of this year’s Metamorphoses theme, including Mariposita, Transmutation, and Chritonium Clock to name just a few.
There are projects that float (Skywhale, Sagrada Perihelia) and projects that sing (Shrine of Sympathetic Resonance, The Beat Box, Sputnik Theremin). You’ll experience a love of the literary, from a giant pop-up book to a beautiful tree made of books, to The Flybrary — a book-filled head with ravens emerging and flying from the crown.
You will discover a whole menagerie of animals spread throughout the desert, from cats, bees, and a variety of sea creatures, to a range of mythical beasts including a flaming phoenix and a glorious flying pegasus.
There are homages to Dali and to the Wizard of Oz. We have a magician from Montreal and a Girl Scout from Las Vegas. The folks who brought the amazing Huichol-beaded dinosaurs last year are returning with a new creation, and Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson have evolved their penny-covered sculptures to include surprising new materials.
Many of your favorite Black Rock City artists are coming back for more, including the Flaming Lotus Girls, Michael Christian, the Iron Monkeys, and Christopher Schardt. And there’s so much more we can’t even describe here; you’ll just have to come experience it for yourself!
We’re pleased to report that 12 international projects received Honoraria grants this year: three from Canada, two from Great Britain, two from Russia, and one each from Chile, France, Mexico, Portugal, and Sweden. There are several artists that have just started making art in the last few years, and seven Honoraria recipients that will be coming to Black Rock City for the first time.
And no report on Burning Man art would be complete without mentioning that 25 of the 73 Honoraria projects will play with fire (including a dazzling combination of a fire tornado and tesla coil! How has that not happened in BRC yet?). Plus we are returning to our roots in performance art, with some places to do flow (fire) art performance, circus and aerial work, and other ways to play and create spectacle. (Stay tuned for how we are going to animate the Man Pavilion!)
There’s so much to be excited about, and we can’t wait to share it all with you. Please save the date for Desert Arts Preview! Sunday, June 2, 6pm at the Sydney Goldstein Theater (formerly the Nourse Theater) in San Francisco. This year we’ll feature some extended opportunities to hang out and have fun with us, along with special live presentations by this year’s featured artists.
A Note About the Temple
Last year, we created a new grant program just for the Temple. The Temple isn’t dependent on the annual theme, so we adjusted the timeline and started the submission process earlier in the year.
In December, we announced the 20th incarnation of the Temple: The Temple of Direction, designed by Geordie Van Der Bosch. We are thrilled that the crew has already been working for several months to build this elegant structure.
How to Get Involved
Of course, most of the almost 400 art installations in BRC are projects that people do on their own, with or without outside funding. So peruse the 2019 BRC Honoraria projects, and if you have some vision that is missing from the list, you are warmly invited to make it happen. If you have skills to contribute and want to help an existing art project, please check out our collaboration tool Spark.
And so without further ado, we’d like to introduce this year’s Honoraria recipients. Drum roll please…
The 2019 Black Rock City Honoraria Recipients
Archaeopteryx — Nicholas DeBruyne — London, United Kingdom
Awful’s Gas & Snack — Matthew Gerring and Crank Factory — San Francisco, CA
Bee Divine Hive Temple — Elizabeth Huebner and The Hive — Fairfield, IA
Bee or Not to Bee — Mr & Mrs Ferguson — Alameda, CA
Bounce Back — Sarah Gonsalves and Sassy Galaxy — Los Angeles, CA
Carousel Zarya — Alexander Dovydenkov and Carousel Zarya — Moscow, Russia
Cathenge — David Normal — Stinson Beach, CA
Chakra Cannon — Joshua Pipic and Cannon Crew — Emeryville, CA
Chapel Perilous — Robert Leifheit and Enchanted Booty Forest — Los Angeles, CA
Circus Fabulae (Ring of Play, Ring of Stories) — Benjamin Jones and Populus Ludere (Play People) — Brooklyn, NY
Cloud Swing / Cloud Swing Storm — Lindsay Glatz and Miracle Wonderland Carnival Co. — New Orleans, LA
Corpus — Michael Christian — Berkeley, CA
Cosmo — Roger Heitzman — Scotts Valley, CA
Critonium Clock — Alena Starostina — San Francisco, CA
Desert WAVE — Anthony Rowe and Squidsoup — Cheltenham, United Kingdom
Elephantes: Hommage au Dali — Jack Champion — Oakland, CA
Fan Coral — Bryson Allen — San Diego, CA
Fragments, 2019 — Marc Ippon de Ronda and ATO Designs Studio — Paris, France
Fucking Useless — Amy Lamboley and Don’t Trust Wizards — San Francisco, CA
Giant Pinball Machine — Benjamin Newman — Roseville, CA
Global Fire and Flow Nexus — Nick Heyming and The Emerald Village — Vista, CA
I.L.Y. — Dan Mountain — Portola Valley, CA
Internal Exposure — Jessica Levine — South Lake Tahoe, CA
Le Metamorphose Des Animaux Extraordinaires — Esmeralda Nadeau-Jasso — Winlaw, Canada
Liberty Neko — Jose Maluenda — Santiago, Chile
Mariposita — Chris Carnabuci — Cold Spring, NY
Mega Mega — Kevin Bourque — Los Angeles, CA
Metamorphatoad — Taylor Collier — South Lake Tahoe, CA
Night Light Tree — Kathleen Smith — West Hollywood, CA
Niloticus — Peter Hazel — Reno, NV
Nirmanakaya — Michael Emery — Santa Cruz, CA
No Place Like Home — Trey Watkins, Mara Greenberg, Alan Becker and Frogma — San Francisco, CA
O NOME DA ROSA – Solar ignition fire & mechanical energy generator — Nuno Paulino — Loures, Portugal
Optical Illusion Wheel — Joe Culpepper — Outremont, Canada
Paraluna — Christopher Schardt — Oakland, CA
Penguin Colony — Quill Hyde and Acavallo — Tonasket, WA
Phoenix Rising — Lisa Nigro and Draka Arts — San Antonio, TX
Pieuvre — Kelly Schott and A.S.A.P. Arts Collective — San Diego, CA
Plaza of Introspectus — Iron Monkey Arts — Seattle, WA
Portal — David Oliver and Art City Monsters — Ventura, CA
Purr Pods — Stephanie Paige Tashner and Laser Eyes of Love — Richmond, CA
Puzzles and Prayers – Reinventing the Prayer Wheel — Gwen Darling, Gwen and Josh Art— Reno, NV
Quality of Life — Josh Vaile — Reno, NV
Reared In Steel’s Fire Kethedral — Kevin Clark and Reared in Steel, LLC — Petaluma, CA
REFUGE — Shrine and The Woods West Oakland — Oakland, CA
Sagrada Perihelia — Brandon Harvey — Los Angeles, CA
Serenity — Flaming Lotus Girls — San Francisco, CA
Skywhale: The Not ShyWhale — Blake Marcus and Accidental Adventure — Amherst, MA
Sputnik Theremin — Ulf Ljungdahl — Oxelosund, Sweden
Stone Three Point Twenty Seven — Ben Langholz — Altadena, CA
Syzygy — Taylor Dean Harrison — Oakland, CA
Taking Flight — Nicki Adani — Mill Valley, CA
The Bard’s Branch — Pamela Ward — San Francisco, CA
The Beat Box — Frank Myers and The Phage / The Institute — Richmond, CA
The Dollhouse — House of Strange Rituals — Eugene, OR
The Flybrary — Christina Sporrong — Taos, NM
The Folly — Dave Keane and Folly Builders — San Francisco, CA
The Heads — Jeremy Suurkivi and Major Crimes — San Francisco, CA
The Intersection X — Anna Yudina and Invisible Pink Unicorns — Moscow, Russia
The Man’s Army — Michael Ciulla — Los Angeles, CA
The Monumental Mammoth — Tahoe Mack, with The Protectors of Tule Springs, Dana Albany, and Luis Valera- Rico — Las Vegas, NV
The Sabbatical — Andrew White and Neophyte Nexus — Toronto, Canada
The Shrine of Sympathetic Resonance — Tyson Ayers and Sympathetic Resonances — Oakland, CA
The Spa at Lake Lahontan — Catie Magee, Jennifer Blakeslee, Ben Anderson, and Aaron Dana — San Francisco, CA
The Towers of Crete — Daniel Fennelly — Oakland, CA
The Tree of Life — Tyler J. Rivenbark & The Institute for Human Creativity — San Francisco, CA
The Wheels of Zoroaster Resurrection — Anton Viditz-Ward — Telluride, CO
Theophany — Matthew Goodman and Coup De Foudre — San Francisco, CA
Toxic Unicorn — Madeleine Hamann and Unicorn Liberation Front — San Diego, CA
Transmutation — Arturo Gonzalez and Arte Conciencia S.C. — Saltillo, Mexico
Welcome Home — Joey Howell and Salt Mind — Salt Lake City, UT
Windchest — Ange Sarno — Watertown, MA
Wings of Glory — Adrian Landon and the Dusty Sparks — New York, NY
Full project descriptions with images and links will be available later in the spring.
Top photo: “The Flybrary” by Christina Sporrong
I have an idea for an art project – a million hoops that you need to jump through to get anything done.
Report comment
But why not come up with an idea and work hard to prove that you can pull it off?
Report comment
It’s hard to find a million hoops. To symbolically represent the effort of bringing an art installation out to the playa, this would be difficult. Do you have any hoops I can use?
Report comment
I am sure that by now there is an Amazon Ad for a million hoops on your Facebook feed
Report comment
If we made Oakland look like Burning Man, we can make any shithole city look like Burning Man. Let’s make all of Africa look like Burning Man, except there’s not enough white people.
Report comment
WOW— this looks amazing. Way to go, BM Arts! Y’all are kickin’ it–congrats on all your hard work and thanks for sharing the preview with us. So excited to see what comes and help build the city this year!
Report comment
It will be so exciting to see these come to life!
Report comment
We need to get rid of the psychopath conservatives. For some reason, they’ve become half of the US population. We need to either send them to re-education camps or just simply execute them.
Burning Man is the future. In 20 to 50 years from now, the entire planet will be like Burning Man. But we need to eliminate our enemies now. There is no alternative.
Report comment
What’s the matter? Are you upset that your giant Ten Commandments art installation was turned down for an honorarium, and so you’re now pretending to be an liberal?
Report comment
How dare you?! I’m a feminist fighting the patriarchy on the front lines of this war. I’m a General in the Army.
Report comment
Eliminate? Why not educate? Are you afraid of the unknown reaction of an awaking mind? Curiosity did kill the cat I beleive, so what side to you have a opinion on .. Was it was pervoked or ferel?
Report comment
In my post I said that re-education was preferable to execution. So yeah, education over simply killing these bastards is better, because it will be hard to deal with 150 million dead bodies, otherwise.
Report comment
Stalin lives…
Report comment
Report comment
Imagine being so unloving toward your mind that you feel compelled to be prompt with your unkindness to other people.
Report comment
Why are you trolling? Burning Man is a place of love and acceptance. Good will to all. Peace be with you, brother. Love be with you and let it guide you from the darkness of hate, into the light that is Burning Man.
Report comment
I agree, Janet. I intended to address the trolls, not become one. Apologies for the misunderstanding. I wish them warmth and an open mind. People often lash out from a place of loneliness or emptiness, and I wish them peace from it.
Report comment
To some trolling might be all they know when introduced to the man by a troll. Same as if one were to live in a box, all they know is a box.
Report comment
Why do they live in a box? What type of material is the box made from?
Report comment
Wooohooo! Can’t wait to see them on playa. Good job everyone! Now get to work ;) <3
Report comment
Fire tornados and tesla coils? Yea baby!
Report comment
Why *always* a naked woman and never a naked man?!
Report comment
Because you haven’t built one.
Report comment
I trust the Jews in this endeavor because I’m not an anti-semite.
Report comment
It all looks so exciting. I can’t wait to explore this art. I usually can’t get around to every art piece on the playa, but I’m going to set a plan for seeing as much as possible. But you know what happens to plans out there.
Report comment
These look totally phenomenal! I hope to do the same and see many more than I usually get to. (Hope some good-meaning Leftie doesn’t kill me enroute!)
Report comment
My first year at Burning Man was 1998. That was the first year they began to allow black men into the event. I had a wonderful time! I’d like to go back this year, but I can’t find any information if black men are still allowed. Does anyone have any information or a hyperlink I can follow to get more info? Thank you, and God bless!
Report comment
I’m goin’ w/ SkyWhale all the wall baby! Looks Fantastical! Always…Lovin’ me some shades! Winds don’t fail us now!
Report comment
Tyson Ayers. You are a genius. Congratulations. What an amazing recognition. The best to you and all the artists. I am speechless.
Report comment
Comments are closed.