I’ve just gotten confirmation that I’m going to be doing an installation in Center Camp at Burning Man. This year’s theme is Rites of Passage. I’m excited about it because it’s another try for me to find a way to bring my art to Burning Man. The festival is near and dear to me but it’s just not a soft and squishy fiber art kinda place. I’m hoping that the structure of Center Camp will create a more protected space and also a place to focus on smaller installations.

I’ll be using the 150-foot-long piece of silk I dyed for BM a few years ago. I’m going to drape it like a valance across a 12 foot pole that spans the entrance to an alcove formed where the shade cloth comes down to the ground. I’ll be making a Fire Bird, or Phoenix, effigy out of rattan, paper, and perhaps some fabric. People will be able to add remembrances and stories of transformation to the effigy over the course of the week. Saturday night after the Man burns, we will take down the fabric, unwind it from its pole, and process with the fabric and effigy to the remains of the Man fire. There we will cast it into the flames and the Phoenix will be consumed by the fire.

Or something like that.