BM: Art part I

Art, and artistic expression, is in some ways the core of BM.

To try to capture it here is a fool's errand, but I have so many lovely pictures, even if they are a tiny fraction of what was available to see and experience, that I'm going to put them here, in three or four parts.

Throughout the city, and across all the open expanses of desert within the defined area of BM, are pieces of art.

They range from massive independent pieces, to domes filled with paintings and sculptures like any gallery.  The only bonding theme is that they are brought to BM, and in some cases, they are burned.

This sculpture is composed of thousands of wood and plaster sculptures, all representing things that people take pride in.  

One of the nicest uses for chicken wire I've seen.

The dock, and sunken ship.  This was an amazing effort.  Last year the crew built the dock that ended in free space ten feet off the ground.  They intended to burn it, but after many requests, they brought it back for a second year, and added the sunken ship at the end.

The size of this project, and the details, were amazing.  Through the hole int he side, where the pier ended, you entered the captains quarters, complete with instruments, charts, a wardrobe full of period clothing, etc.  None of it tied down, and in the course of the week I didn't notice anything missing on my return visits, a testament to the types of people at BM.

The hold of the ship, with dining area, canons lining the ports on either side, benches and lights and tables...

The deck sloping into the sand.

The upper deck, masts, rigging, etc.  

This massive balloon, suspended from two towers, was printed with the surface of the moon.

Man with fish, rising from the desert.

There's a night time picture of this somewhere; the head and wings of this phoenix were ringed in fire at night.

Love swing.  Wall Street is in the background.  That project is one of the few I saw financial figures for; over 100k spent to build those BofA, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sach etc. buildings, and it was torched.  

I made it up to the mid section of this structure, and after looking at the plywood and sheetrock screws, i decided not to go up to the top of the head.  To the artist's credit, nobody that I know of was hurt on this thing, and it burned beautifully late in the week.

This was one of my favorite pieces.  It took a good sized crane to set this up, but the simplicity of design and the made me happy.  With enough people you could get the whole structure to spin on its base, and the lower two rocks would rotate as the base turned.

This rock spun freely on that handy swivel-connector.  

I was tickled with our dome, but saw so many larger, more intricate designs.  The most impressive part to me, how they assembled these things.