ARTECH’S 2016 INSTALLATION IS A BURNING MAN GLOBAL ARTS GRANT RECIPIENT ~

THE RENO PLAYA ART PARK

Artists currently featured In the Reno Playa Art Park include:

DAYDREAM – A COMMISSIONED MURAL.

by Joe C. Rock

IMAGO

by Kirsten Berg

Blue mirror-steel butterflies hover 17 ft over the park, wings lifted as if just alighted, yet ready for takeoff. Stepping beneath the delicately-perforated, arching wingspan, vivid blue light scatters, encircling us in a vaulted, luminous space of geometric patterns/ reflections. “Imago” holds a space, in structure and feeling, that is light and uplifting, like an intimate temple or futuristic shrine.

The elevated butterflies are easily-resonant metaphors for the transformative experiences that compel so many migrations to Burning Man: immersion into a place of imagination, to be renewed, transformed.

Butterfly metamorphosis mirrors our Playa experiences: intense preparations, followed by the suspension of mundane life, to immerse into a dreamlike space that is safe-yet-undefined, full of potential. When the time of cocooning is over, we emerge, high on imagination. Just as the mature butterfly, known as an Iimago, returns to the wider world, ripe for creation and pollination.

ELECTRIC DANDELIONS

by Liquid PXL, lead artist Abram Santa Cruz

Electric Dandelions are three 23-27 ft tall dandelion sculptures that double as fireworks at night.

They come with a sound reactive controller and are iPad controlled.

Each will have a bench at the bottom of the stems so that eight participants can sit under each dandelion at a time.

ELECTRIC RENAISSANCE (A TRIBUTE TO CADILLAC RANCH)

by Bodo Jülicher, Keith Muscutt, Andrzej Sztur, Jakub Sztur | Honorarium Grant recipient for Burning Man 2016

An homage to Cadillac Ranch. In 1974 the artists collaborative Ant Farm buried ten Cadillacs in the Texas prairie, leaving only the tail fins visible. Cadillac Ranch has come to symbolize the demise of the dinosaurs that brought the American automobile industry to the brink of extinction. The emergence of the nose-section of a zero-emissions vehicle turns the image of Cadillac Ranch on its head. It suggests that, after a transformational journey through the bowels of earth, the automobile is being reborn as an environmentally-friendly descendant of gas-guzzling ancestors.

GOOD LUCK HORSESHOE

by Mike Gray

The Biggest Little Horseshoe on the Playa wishes the citizens Good Luck on their journeys on the playa and in life. It will be a great photo opportunity. Created by local artists.

It is an 8 foot tall steel horseshoe with the words “Good Luck” reaching another 2 feet overhead. During the Opening Celebration, the citizens of Reno pass thru the horseshoe, they will hear the good luck whinnies of horses and the occasional wise–guy remark to send them on their way.

TRASPARENZA

“Trasparenza is a transparent structure resembling a sparkling crystal crown,” according to the city of Reno’s list. “Twelve turreted triangular towers form a chapel-like installation. It will be made entirely of clear cast acrylic panels laser-cut with intricate detail. The imagery of the lower panels represents the heraldic emblems of the master guilds of Florence and a Medici coat of arms represents philanthropy. The laser-cut motifs on the inner walls illustrate Leonardo’s lifelong preoccupations including geometry, architecture, engineering, hydrodynamics, aerodynamics, anatomy and painting. The arches through which participants enter and leave feature the inscription SAPER VEDERE, meaning “knowing how to see.” A humanist chapel, Trasparenza is a place for Reno citizens to play in and pray in.”