Art on the Playa is on a grander than grand scale—as in climbing height grand and extraordinarily creative grand. The first day I arrived, my daughter and husband guided me onto the Playa to view the installations. Traveling by bike meant it was impossible to see them all in one day, but I had a preview of the scale of the desert city and the installations on that first day.
During the daylight hours, the art stood out on the desert, despite the khaki desert color of everything else in sight. At night, they took on an entirely different appearance with lights and music and movement. I cannot even begin to describe how spectacular each one was, but I admit to having a few favorites.
Teri and I loved the swinging clouds, which were whimsical and functional. I handed my I-phone to a stranger, who took some shots of two grandmothers, acting like kids on the swings positioned below the clouds. At night, they were beacons of light and landmarks for us to find our way home.
The Folly, a wooden structure built by 20-year burner Dave Keane, was one of the most impressive structures. The intent of his creation, built by carpenters, engineers, and design artists, was a massive 24-room tunneled, secret- roomed building in the style of an old Irish fishing village. We climbed up the clock tower and wandered into the rooms created from recycled and reclaimed wood. One room had an old typewriter to type messages to be left behind before the building was burned, and I was the last person to use it. (I impressed a young crowd with my typing skills:)
My favorite was the Monumental Mammoth. Created from metal objects which had been dumped in the desert near fossil beds, the idea for the project was from 18-year old Girl Scout Tahoe Mack for her Gold Award project. The entire art project was inspired by the story of the volunteers’ named Protectors of Tule Springs, who work to rescue the ice age fossil beds near Las Vegas. The mammoth structure will be permanently installed at the fossil beds, which will become a new state park. I returned three times to run my hands over levers, locks, knobs, scraps and metal that fashioned this tactile creature and was fortunate enough to meet the head of the project.
Day and night, in addition to the art we viewed, art cars of all shapes, themes, and sizes could be heard and seen. Music, dancing, fire, sounds, and lights emanated from roving vehicles. Sometimes they stopped to pick up passengers wandering the desert. Some were moving dance parties, and others were people-movers with room to attach bikes. We were fortunate to make a friend with an art car and he ferried our campmates to parties, sunsets and sunrises, and the traditional burning of the man and temple on two separate nights.
Art and creativity existed in every shape and form, from the camp decor and themes, to the outfits burners created and wore for their days and nights. People watching was almost as extraordinary as the art installations! We were never able to see every piece of art in the city, but even today I cannot conceive of the work and money that poured into the brilliance of the artists.
