By Girl Scout Gold Award Recipient Tahoe Mack, Mentor and Protector of Tule Springs Representative Sherri Grotheer, and artists Luis Varela-Rico and Dana Albany. "The Monumental Mammoth project [depicts] a life-sized steel Colombian mammoth skeleton collaged with metal found objects to tell the story of Tule Spring National Monument’s past, present, and future. The sheer size and struggle of the mammoth’s stance is a representation of the universal call to protect what the earth has given humanity. As a community, we are called together to protect the fossils of our past and the education of our future. Dana Albany and Luis Varela-Rico are pulling together the sleek elements of the interior steel structure and the intricate weavings to represents the distinctive community that is Las Vegas.It also tells the story of a rising feminine power, and shows all women of any age that anything is possible!"
Burning Man's art installation "Head Maze" (by: Matthew Schultz and The Pier) is a purposeful juxtapositions of two forms, a peaceful meditative reflection and our inevitable struggle with the nature of cognition; a monolithic mind caught in time between multiple selves. The head towers four stories over the playa floor, encased in mulberry paper and epoxy modeled after the work of Yoshio Ikezaki. The head rests in repose while its left hand claws at its mind fighting to reveal a crystalline stained glass structure akin to the “Space Whale” inside. A series of hidden doors in the mouth, wrists and head open into a four story, 18 room maze. Each modular room creates a unique space dedicated to the nature of our minds, our struggles with being and the weird and fanciful process of dreaming.
The Temple is one of the most important places on the playa at Burning Man, and many find catharsis there. There is only one official ritual in the Temple, and that is to burn it. On Sunday night of the event, with thousands of participants as witnesses, the Temple is burned in silence. “The Temple of Direction” by Geordie Van Der Bosch is a linear space, capturing the elegance and austerity of the torii gates at Fushimi Inari Shrine in Japan, where the artist has previously lived. The linear lines form a passage that expands into a large hall, eliciting both a physical experience and a metaphorical journey. It’s a space that responds to the openness of the playa by creating a framework that encourages you to travel from end to end. This linear form reflects the passage of life with its beginning, middle, and end. Throughout the structure there are areas that reflect this journey: narrow & wide spaces, bright & dark spaces, and tunnels that create intimate physical settings. Meanwhile, a large central hall, an altar, and many shelves for offerings create the setting for a collective experience.
