Oh, who cares if it's makes sense? BM rant, yearly take redux!

[winneganfake]

All right.

So, welcome to the yearly rant. A good chunk of my friends are currently leaving or have left for Burning Man, and well, while this isn't directed at any of them, there's quite a few other burners I've run into who seem to have this issue.

They're weekenders.

They spend three-quarters of the year working their ordinary day jobs, living their ordinary lives, and doing nothing further. Until springtime rolls around, when they begin working in secret, building the mega-art abomination of awesome to show to all their friends on the playa. Who, of course, being on the playa, fucking love it. And afterwards, it's deconstructed, as is that part of their life, and they go back to being just a simple accountant for the remainder of the year.

No.

What happens in Black Rock City needs to stop fucking staying in Black Rock City. If you're going to make art, then fucking make art, and make it everywhere- not just for a tiny population who will love it, but for everyone. bring the goddamned insanity to the rest of the world because they need to fucking see it. If you're going to do art, then fucking do art- use it. Challenge things. Inspire things. Get naked in public, smear yourself over with paint and chicken feathers and start making gorilla noises at passerby. But do not lock off the most burningly intense part of your life where not a single fucking soul who actually needs to see it gets to see it. I'm not saying that every moment of your life should be an artistic fight against The Man, or anything like that. But I am saying that art should not just be relegated to a yearly asylum of our own making, something we just keep in a giant, hot, dusty closet to only show to our closest friends.

It's not for nothing that I'm got the old brecht quote "Art is not a mirror, art is a hammer." tattooed on the inside of my wrist. No. It's because art is a fucking tool, and should be used constantly, not just for a big yearly party where we all get to feel safe about our work because we know everyone there's into that shit. It not only defeats the whole point of doing things like big flaming installations, it cheapens it.

And I'm not saying make your art accessible to common man. Don't. The common man is a sheep that needs regular challenging, if we're going to force it into anything other than simple sheep-hood. Keep it challenging. Keep it intense. Keep it on fire, just like on the fucking playa.

Just make sure that it can get seen off of it as well.

Comments

[soren-grey.livejournal.com]

Fuck, I wish I was at Burning Man now... It's on my bucket list, I suppose. And this was a really powerful post.

[winneganfake.livejournal.com]

Get it off the bucket list and onto the 2011 list. From everything I've heard it's totally worth it. Me, well, we need to wait until we're sure we can leave the kids off with sitters for a week. Or until they're just plain old enough to bring them both with us, which'd be even longer.

[franktheavenger.livejournal.com]

Not everyone can devote themselves to art, because not everyone can make a living doing art. And if you're going to be that serious about it, you have to be able to, or have some other support mechanism.

That and making art isn't something that's that neccessary for a lot of people. In this case, they might make art because the idea of showing stuff at Burning Man inspires them, and that's as far as it goes for them. Art can be a hobby, and that's okay.

[winneganfake.livejournal.com]

Art can indeed be a hobby. My thing is, why does it have to be a once-per-year-only-in-the-desert hobby? Why not balance art and an Average Joe life at the same time?

And why, of all things, should showing off at Burning Man be an inspiration? there's no risk, there's no chance of failing, it's... safe. And doing art only in a safe environment for it seems downright boring to me at least.

[staxxy.livejournal.com]

While I agree that art should be year round and everywhere, I also see the merit of making a big, huge, expensive, and labor intensive piece for a *particular show* - which Burning Man is, essentially. I get that.

But so is the Freemont Solstice Parade, and a dozen parades like it around town (for the Seattle folk - but I know that other cities have similar artsy parades) which would happily enjoy having those vehicles in them.

There are lots of communities around every city where art can be every weekend and on a smaller scale than Burning Man. And more crop up all the time, partially BECAUSE of BM.

The thing that irritates me about the 'weekenders' is that they are *unhappy* when they are drudging through their lives and *not* making art, when they COULD be making art all year (even if at a smaller scale the rest of the time).