Project Objectives

To bring African art and music to Burning Man and provide a platform for future African art development within the burning man community. 

Burning Man Ethos

Burning Man Arts acts on the belief that community-driven, inclusive and interactive art is vital to a thriving culture. Through art grants, mentorship, and art management programs, Burning Man Arts supports the creation of impactful, interactive artwork around the world and at Burning Man.

The mission of Burning Man Arts is to change the paradigm of art from a commodified object to an interactive, participatory, shared experience of creative expression.

Opportunity

Despite the many successful art installations highlighting diversity in Burning Man, there hasn’t been African representation. We propose to change this in Partnership with Nana Sao, Oriaikhi-Sao Foundation, 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair and Maxa Camp.

1-54 is the first leading international art fair dedicated to contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora with annual editions in London, New York (since 2015) and Marrakech (since 2018). Drawing reference to the fifty-four countries that constitute the African continent, 1-54 is a sustainable and dynamic platform that is engaged in contemporary dialogue and exchange.

Project Summary

“The Resurrection of the Clothes Peg” is a large scaled public artwork that is compelling, interactive, thought provoking and relevant to our current time. Designed to respond to the context of Burning Man, both in its unique culture, physical environment and its ability to engage audiences.

Physical Description & Interactivity

The monumental sculpture of half of a common household wooden clothes peg is made from steel pipes that are stacked and joined on top each other to create the form. A ladder at the bottom of the artwork offers the viewer the opportunity to climb to a small viewing deck.

The scale and anomaly of the form as an enlarged ordinary object is intended to invite the viewer to inspect the work closer. The huge pipes at the bottom of the sculpture are large enough to sit inside, lie in or crawl through. The smaller pipes on the peg are made to catch the wind to create a sound. This will only happen when the wind blows from a certain direction, thus creating a chance element.

About a third of the way up the peg component is a viewing deck. At the bottom of the peg, there is a ladder built into the structure that invite the viewer to climb up and continue on the pipes which have been designed to act as stairs closer to the deck.

Philosophy & Meaning

The wooden clothes peg features prominently in Usha’s work and has come to signify the female; in its singular and in its collective. It is an ordinary domestic object, rudimentary in nature. In it’s amplified form it speaks of the pedestrian functions of our lives and in particular the lives of women.

The work is Dadaist and Surreal and gives emphasis to the unnoticed and the mundane. The function of the peg is to hold together, to support, to secure. But is not a full peg. It is half a peg. It is incomplete yet familiar and recognizable. It is stripped of its utilitarian purpose and magnified.