Title:
Medium: Super-8 film
Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Resolution: 2880 x 2160
File Type: H.264 Codec / MP4.
Comments: First thing in the morning I picked up the caravan near the San Jose airport that will be our home for the next week on the desert playa. Ethan and Henrick packed in the all the supples, from our favorite snacks, drinks, psychedelics, and art supples and instruments for the whacky journey ahead. We took turns driving this mammoth of a vehicle through the Sierra Nevada mountains. I was sleep deprived and the boat of a home was slapping me around the center of gravity in the back of the mobile from side to side while I was trying to get some shut eye. All I can remember before reaching the line to get into Burning Man was all the sounds of the cabinets creaking and slamming the whole ride. Trusting we would make it there in one piece. I really needed the sleep. We made a pit stop along the way where everyone goes for last minute water and supplies at the last Walmart for the rest of the road to the destination we'll call home. Making sure we had everything and taking a smoke break before the final stretch. I noticed a school bus of new burners packing up some ice and their bikes. So I went over to them and introduced myself, and the man holding the ice was also named Justin. There is a funny connection that can be made over sharing a name, however common it may be, it is a thread to weave a friendship easily. It is the first thing we have in common before entering a conversation. It kinda males things easier to break the ice, literally! I told Justin and his friends, Daniel and Elvira, about the art project since they asked why I had a few cameras strapped to my chest. I am an artist, I said, and am working on a big art project making portraits around the US, and here we are going to Burning Man to make portraits there too. What does it mean to be American in America in 2023? For this part of the year long journey, that is what I was trying to figure out through the people and places we met in this movie, through the lens of my photographs to make meaning of it all. Burning Man is a cultural artifact of America; the omega art and music festival where people go to let go of all the weight and pains of every day life and dance it away in the desert. Escape for a week? Maybe. Freed by greed, nothing is for sale when you get there, but I did spend a lot of money getting there. You barter with your time, patience, presence, skills, and dumb luck. Some make friends, some take drugs, some bring their kids and bike around like an amusement park for adults. Playing like we are all kids still in the sandbox. This place is supposed to represent total freedom; wether it be indulging in hedonistic pleasures, or expanding life experiences with your friends in a safety net. For me, I came for the art and the music. To bike around nude and be free of my own judgement and shame to leave it there to burn away in the flames. We all have our reasons, and yes, it may not be the same Burning Man that we learned about on Baker Beach in the 80's of an old San Francisco. But this is what we have now. I had a couple of free tickets by my friend, Brody and always wanted to check it out. Coming from a psychedelic upbringing, it was part of the curriculum. Theres an old Mckenna or Leary quote saying, "When you get the call pick up the phone. Then, hang up when you get the message." You know its your time to goto Burning Man when the stars align and the opportunity presents itself to you effortlessly. You cant force it, it has to flow. And these tickets flowed right into our hands, we couldn't say no. How ironic that it was during this project? It is as if this sub-culture wanted to be express itself into this project to show the depths of new age Neo-America values. When you look from above at night the entire landscape is a colorful and bright constellation of lights and energy. And my mission for this project is to send a transmission into different start system colonies. A mirrored reality from Earth into Deep space. Our souls shimmer and dance through the night into the next day. Where the fire, the chanting, the dancing brings us one step closer to our ancestors home and primal roles of what it means to simply being human.
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