“This sculpture expresses the story of the evolution of the human spirit from the roots of Burning Man culture. In this space in the desert, where no life seems to live, springs an explosion of novelty so life altering, that it could not contain itself, and it began to pollinate the world.”
:: Star Seed ::
This sculpture expresses the story of the evolution of the human spirit from the roots of Burning Man culture. In this space in the desert, where no life seems to live, springs an explosion of novelty so life altering, that it could not contain itself, and it began to pollinate the world.
For innumerable reasons, Burning Man seems to bring out what is best in ourselves and burns the rest away. For many of us, it is this fertile soil of shared experience - where we are at once unplugged from the world and synchronistically tapped into each other - that we rediscover our creativity, our absurdity, our freedom, generosity, trust and our pure raw joy. We have created our own myths and our own rituals, and we live by ethics of our own making. We have built sacred spaces and created transformational art, and we have learned to let them go. We have surrendered to the eternal now, to the rhythms of sunset and moonrise, and moon set and sunrise. We feel the vastness of possibility. We feel hope for humanity. We feel it, because we have created it. And because we created this seed from this divine common ground, we live it fearlessly. Star Seed occupies that space where our earth-bound bodies root in the dust, gather together, and rise to meet our higher selves.
Star Seed was created to resonate with the Fertility theme at Burning Man festival in 2012. At 42 feet in height, three sets of curvilinear roots arc their way down and offer a pathway of ascent up thorn-like stairs. Built-in hand holds, foot holds and railings assist the adventurer up 21 feet to a serene refuge in the sky. Built around the geometry of three interlocking circles (a symbol of creation and cell division), octahedrons (one of the Platonic Solids, the shapes of the simplest chemical building blocks of all matter in the universe), this aerial refuge is made of curvilinear organic plant shapes and elevates the visitor in one of three 6-foot wide cushioned lounge areas . Gathering around and illuminated central pyramid table, or resting on its leaf-like walls and gazing upwards, you see the geometry of the entire structure of leaves radiating out above of you. At night: I imagine hours spent with friends, gathering in this astral bower, when the central pyramid glows like an amber yellow fire, inviting connection around a galactic seed pod in the sky.