Ron H Feldman
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Burners in Defaultia - Thoughts after the Renwick

6/10/2018

21 Comments

 
I was excited to be among the lucky few to be invited to the late March opening of “No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man” at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian. I got the invite from my sister (the jeweler, Tzipora Hoynik), who was one of the artists whose work was selected to be included in the exhibit. I’m no artist, but I like to say I’m a purveyor of art, in that over the last eight years since by first Burn in 2010 I’ve bought and given away hundreds of Tzipora’s annually themed pendants as playa gifts, which are often treasured and worn for multiple years. I enjoyed seeing all the art up close and the opportunity to meet the artists whose work I’ve enjoyed over the years. Yes, it was odd to see it indoors, to know that the artcar has no drive train (too heavy for the floor) and the Temple is only decoration with no supporting structure (since it’s all attached to the walls of the museum)  – but it does give a taste of Burning Man despite the lack of playa dust and propane poofers. The three days I spent in the company of the artists along with their friends, family, supporters and BMorg representatives was fun – it was basically a great Artery party. I was happy for these artists – and Burning Man as a whole - to get greater recognition and perhaps help their careers because, you know, it’s not easy making a living as an artist!

I didn’t have a problem seeing the gift shop full of non-Burning Man themed items by a lot of these artists, and it seemed a little odd to also see books and photos of Burning Man art for sale (yet, I did buy a photo after a long discussion about commodification with the artist (Peter Ruprecht), who was donating his proceeds). But I got really queasy and upset at the floor to ceiling bookshelf full of “No Spectators” museum exhibition swag: water bottles, coffee mugs, t-shirts, shopping bags, etc. [SEE PHOTO] Pretty standard fare for museum exhibits, but the irony, even contradiction, of the name and the swag was just screaming at me!!! I appreciate that the BMorg worked hard to NOT allow the Burning man logo on any of this stuff, but this still seemed against the spirit of the very art and name of the exhibit! At first I thought of an ironic protest by buying a $30 water bottle and gifting it away on the playa (which would be unnoticed by anyone but me) or perhaps throwing the whole shelf full of crap onto the floor (which would have caused other problems). In the end, I opted to write this essay instead, about my mixed feelings upon seeing Burning Man – the event and it’s art – curated and Museum-ized.
​
I tell people I go to Burning Man for the art. Not just to look and interact with it, but to help it come out to the playa – through donating to fundraisers and by helping out on various art crews. An integral part of Burning Man art is the process of building the art, which almost always includes a crew of people (unless you are talking about jewelry, patches, costumes, which can be individual efforts) for whom building art has been a community creating event. The experience of building the art is as important as the product itself, and the tradition of burning the art highlights the importance of process rather than goal. Join a crew, help build it, lend your skills, learn new skills, and maybe be inspired to have your own artistic vision- that is the School of Burning Man art. An important, and perhaps under-appreciated, element is the cross-fertilization that flows from this evolving community aspect, where people recombine into various groups to produce various art projects year after year after year – not because they are making any money but because it’s fun and meaningful to join with others in creating these projects. And this is even more the case with performance art than the plastic arts. This is where Communal Effort, Participation and Immediacy combine to produce the experience of “no spectators.”

But this community element was not shown at “No Spectators”. Some of the individual pieces were labeled as being by a particular crew/collective – such as Five Ton Crane Arts Collective and Foldhaus Art Collective – but even a lot of pieces identified as being by a particular artist – such as David Best – were produced by a crew, not by an individual. And, like at Burning Man, the crews were primarily voluntary, unlike the studios that build out commercial art to the designs of star artists. What’s special about this ecosystem is that it’s a continuous hands-on, open source, artist incubator community. This is the real heart of Burning Ban art. As long as hardly anyone is making money on this, there is a virtuous circle of volunteerism combined with seed money/donations/fundraising to make the art happen.

But I started to wonder: what are the knock-on effects and changing incentives of default world success? Are these 20 or so artists the best of Burning Man, and is there now an implicit status connected to whether you were shown at The Renwick? Because their work is now “recognized,” will these artists (and perhaps others) feel it is too valuable to bring art to the playa (and burn it?!) when they could maybe sell it in the default world? Of course, some artists have sold pieces before - but does it change the flavor of the event if artists and gallery owners descend on BRC as a step towards Art Basel, kind of like what happened to Sundance and Indie films? Will people still be willing to volunteer their time on an art project if someone else is going to make money on it?

And will the kind of art change? The inclination to showcase on the playa with an eye toward selling post-playa might only accelerate a change that has been noticeable over the last few years: the playa has become noticeably more blink-y and less burn-y at night, with more LEDs and less wood or propane flame. More “Tree of Tenere” and less “Burn Wall Street”. Artists and Burners in general are exploring LED technology as it gets so much cheaper. Maybe it’s more environmental and easier to clean up to use more plastic/metal/LEDs and burn less (post-burn LNT is a bitch!). But I feel like it’s one thing for art pieces to occasionally be sold and have a post-playa life and another if it becomes a regular expectation or goal that artists aspire to.

Ultimately, I come away feeling like the title, “No Spectators” is ironic, because once all the artists/Burners/makers left after the opening, all that remains at the Renwick are displays to view. Sure you can touch the art and some events with local Burners will take place, but it’s mainly about spectating, not making; preserving, not burning. When we look back from the future we might say that this was when the ““Burning Man” school of art was recognized by the “default” art world – something like the Expressionists or the Bauhaus. Indeed, some might add that this was also the point where Burning Man jumped the shark - Again? Finally?  Maybe…

And yet – it’s not a bad thing for Burning Man to transcend the playa and present an alternate vision of Communal Effort and Civic Responsibility in the default world. I mean what Burner hasn’t wanted defaultia to be more burnery? Especially a block from the White House…

Link to Renwick - ​No Spectators:
​The Art of Burning Man
21 Comments
jack rubinson
6/11/2018 11:14:54 am

I started with your photos- lovely, nice, then shudder cringe. The last an immediate visceral reaction to the pic of “corporate shwag for sale”.
I start with this: where 2 streams meet, there will be mud and osmosis. We hope our stream impacts and changes the vector/direction of, well, actually ALL of what we encounter. As such, some of the edges are not only not smooth, they are still in fact jagged.
Our tracectory now takes us across this art devide you characterize as a period or movement (perhaps Burningmanart follows post-modernism, mirroring our grappling with an additional layer of consciousness, like a fifth order for instance (if you see four). So, now we must, like volcanic red lava, eat/cut through/digest this latest conundrum to our highest order light. We all gotta eat and art eats, works and sits at the adult table.
My acid test (on so many many levels) is to check the ego/I content versus the US/We. If&when it’s Us, then the collective We “knows”.
We are by definition pushing any boundary that stands/stands in our way, in our persuit of the biggest essence/s we can fathom, and, we are empowered because in our persuits, we have discovered the bigger We. The We of a tribe that rings deeply within each being as “I am home. I am with/have found, my people!”
- and we are so much greater, like waves on waves over waves.
There will be blood. Why wouldn’t there be? We have it. We make it. We can make it more meaningful.
Thank you Ron and sorry for the ramble, I hope a glimpse of my response comes through.

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Reese Forbes ( burner name Lionman)
6/18/2018 03:48:27 pm

I intent to go in the fall (from St Louis), partially because a photo of me hangs in the exhibit, but also to see if it gives the gallery goer an understandable idea of what it is like to attend and if the Principles are explained. Or is it just stuff?

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Ron
6/18/2018 06:04:50 pm

The do have a heavy emphasis on explaining the 10 Principles - which is part of why the giftshop is so ironic.
As for attending: What I've been telling people is that if you have been to the playa, there's no need to go to the Renwick. But if you happen to be in DC, it's nice to check it out.

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Jonathan
6/18/2018 04:06:06 pm

The title "No spectators" doesn't refer to the visitors to the museum, it refers to the credo of the Burning Man community that gave rise to the art on display. Also, it's marketing language, intended to provide a catchy name for the exhibit and capture the interest of the community to entice them to come to the exhibit. In the real world, marketing takes center stage.

Why you would consider violence and destruction to be an appropriate response to the swag for sale is beyond me to comprehend, especially as you seem to be portraying yourself as a devotee to the BM principles.

And finally, why you would be less than ecstatic at the recognition given to the BM community by this high profile exhibit is also bewildering. All your moaning about this or that hypothetical downfall fits well into the cliche pseudo-intellectual art commentary motif but is missing the point. Don't you want the world to see and learn about BM, or do you prefer to keep it an elite secret?

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Ron
6/18/2018 06:14:29 pm


Thanks for taking time to read this and to respond. My main goal here was to to open up a space for reflection about the exhibit, and I know we won't all agree!

Concerning the Violence and Destuction: as you can tell from what I wrote, I DID NOT do that. I was describing my feelings honestly, and surely there are differences between how most of us feel about all sorts of things, and how we act. That is part of growing up. So I channeled my upset into the essay.

I agree that "No Spectators" is clever marketing language. But that's just the point: there is this gap between the "Playa" and the "Default World". Here I'm just trying to share my ambivalence.

As to why I'm less than ecstatic about the exhibit, I tried to explain/express that in the essay. I was ecstatic to start with, and really enjoyed the exhibit. And I am glad that Burning Man is getting this attention - no I don't want it to be a secret society. At times I've been one of those people who can't stop talking about Burning Man, LOL. . But the publicity also may come at a cost.

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Torrey "Sarge" Smith link
6/18/2018 04:24:38 pm

I appreciate the frank conversation. I constantly feel that we toe the line with Sextant. We have stickers, T-shirts, man pendants, all the swag in the World. Is it too much? Not enough?

I deliberately pump the brand "Sextant", because it gives me an alternative to simply pumping the brand "Sarge". Any member of Sextant can tap into the magic of that name recognition, which helps me feel slightly better about the limelight which both vexes and calls to me.

I often see relatively new burners suggest, rather forcefully, that our community should be the tip of the spear with regards to some of the gentler trappings of the progressive movement. It's ironic that I, as a relative newbie myself, am drawn to bygone glories such as Frogbat and the Drive-by Shooting Gallery.

We won't find the answers in a single declarative statement, but we will find a path in these conversations, which can and must illuminate our path into this new chapter.

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Ron
6/18/2018 06:20:07 pm

Sarge -
Thanks so much for your comments (and it was great to hang a bit with you at the Renwick). I do appreciate how you are self conscious and aware of the many "lines" that get negotiated in the Burning Man community. I think the "thinking" along with the "doing" is what this community is pretty good at.

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Jim Dangle
6/18/2018 06:54:18 pm

That was an interesting and somewhat thoughtful article about the Renwick exhibit, but I think it doesn't acknowledge what museum exhibits are for, and why this exhibit in particular seems, in the context of the newly refurbished, highly air-conditioned, and somewhat elegant interior of the Renwick Gallery.

I too was shocked when I saw the stuff for sale in the gift shop--but on reflection it didn't seem inappropriate. After all, nowhere does it say Burning Man on it, nor have a BM logo. In fact "No Spectators" is the title of the exhibit, which belongs to the museum, and the kind of stuff being sold is of the normal museum shop sort, intended to give those who were there something nice to remind themselves of what they'd seen. The "swag" was museum, not Burning Man.

But overall, with regard to the exhibit, what "seemed against the spirit" of BM was the exhibit itself. An exhibit is not participatory, and participation is the essence of BM (which the museum tried to emphasize by calling the exhibit "No Spectators"). A museum is all spectators.

A museum exhibit also tends to create public demand for what is exhibited, a market for the work shown. That concept is antithetical to the BM ethic because that which is produced for or at BM is intended to be destroyed. It is not really museum art; it would be performance art except for the impetus for universal participation. In the end, I concluded that if someone's goal had been just to show what went on at BM that purpose would have been better served by showing some of the excellent videos that are produced every year. Maybe, without participation, you just can't show what BM is.

I think there was a greater failure here, that of BMOrg to have allowed the exhibit in the first place. It was beautiful and exciting to see, but it wasn't BM. And it may well have had the detrimental effect of creating a commercial environment for BM art. Sure, BM participants can create and sell whatever they want--but that which is sold is not Burning Man; Burning Man art--burns.

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Ron
6/20/2018 07:31:17 am

Thanks for your comments. It is fair to debate whether such an exhibit is good or bad (which I'm glad is taking place on this blog, as elsewhere). I think the BM Org encouraged it and helped quite a bit - but they did draw the line (so to speak) by not allowing the sale of items with the Burning Man logo )*(, so yes "No Spectators" was totally the Renwick's thing, which they commodified like every museum - it's branding/marketing in today's world. But that's why it is so ironic, as spectating is what museums are all about (even if there is some modest interaction).

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sve
6/18/2018 08:45:12 pm

The most interesting thing for me at the Renwick was to look at the reactions of the visitors who were seeing those things for the first time. I think many were intrigued. And this is an indoor museum, not a dusty playa with open-bars every 100 feet. The experience can't be the same. But it has an effect, and influence. And offered a very different view of how we should live than the viewpoint offered just a few thousand feet away.

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Ron
6/20/2018 07:23:31 am

I agree - and that's why it is great to have this exhibit.

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Sarah
6/19/2018 10:13:09 am

It seems to me that the "No Spectators" name comes from the exhibit title, so it's not 'promoting' or commodifying BM - it's doing what all museum gift shops do, selling stuff with the details of an exhibit. I agree with another comment that the very concept of a museum exhibit about Burning Man is kind of strange, being ONLY about spectators. That being said, I think it's great if more people know about BM, and what it's all about. But I have the same kind of queasy feeling I did seeing the 'tourist buses' arriving on the Playa, with people who've come sight-seeing for the day. In that case, it felt like Black Rock City might be an actual city, with regular tourists coming to see the sights, and maybe that lends credence to the idea of it being an actual city, although temporary. Still odd. I love that this debate is happening - it shows how provocative and alive the concept of the Burn still is, not just a big party :)

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Ron
6/20/2018 07:32:16 am

Thanks for joining in the debate!

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Perry
6/19/2018 02:35:35 pm

My playa experience is minimal, so apologies to those that have been thinking deeply about this for years. But as a museum person that's trying to absorb the BM principles, some thoughts come to mind:

Art, among many things, is a cultural artifact. It's a product of who, where, what and when its made. Removing art from its original context inevitably changes it, almost always diminishing it. If you've been to the BM you know it personally. You've felt it. Seeing BM art removed from that environment seems wrong on a lot of levels. But that's exactly the case with nearly every art work in every museum. The Renwick exhibition cant duplicate the playa experience, but it makes an attempt to bring it to a wider audience, to people that will never have the opportunity to go to the playa.

Secondly, "No Spectators" may feel like a hallow ironic title after you've been to the playa, but museum visitors are participating with the art, all be it in a much more limited way. Art doesn't exist without people to experience it.

Thanks for the write up Ron.

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Ron
6/20/2018 07:20:52 am

Thanks for your comment - hadn't read it before responding (below) to "The", but it's very much along the same lines of what Museum's do.

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The
6/20/2018 04:24:11 am

I have just returned from the spectating of the No Spectators. I felt like a curator for my home. I took non burners with me who have listened to me over the years try to explain the beautiful art movement that is TTITD. I was proud to walk among the small sampling of beauty that I behold every year on the playa. I explained what I knew and when I saw it and how I felt as we strolled through the Renwick. My friends finally seeing a small sampling of this colossal majestic beauty.
I compare it to going to see Banksy in Amsterdam a few years ago. It is not the intended setting for his work and yet collecting these moments and placing them for me to see was a gift. To have the work in front of my eyes since I had never come across it in the street myself but had heard all about it and desired to see more, was a gift.
There was a gift shop there with graf art on coffee cups and bags to carry farmers markets fair in. I thought it odd then, the commodification. I stood in the gift shop wondering why belittle this statement with a magnet? I didn't buy anything then or at the Renwick because the principle is mine. I understand your bewilderment and discussed it loudly in the middle of the Renwick because it just dumps you into a store while walking around. There were women touching everything and I leaned into their conversation and told them to just go to TTITD and get the swag for free and climb on the art and be in the moment. I may have looked a little odd at that moment to them but I wanted to bring the principles to them and draw their attention away from the trinket in their hand.
The art of Burning Man is the moment. To share such a great gift will be treasured by some and be a trinket to others. For that is society.
To me though, the one that carries art in her heart and TTITD as home it was a gift to share with my timid friends. Those who are unsure what wonders I speak of and now have sat under the modified Firmament with me as I explain life as the classical music played above. "Now imagine its freezing cold, and you wander towards this billowing light cloud, to find many warm inviting bodies laying in the middle of a desert listening to classical music and being still for maybe 5 songs. Getting all warm and understanding that in this moment there is peace. That this art fulfills all your needs on a cold desert evening, with a few hundred strangers, laying among the technology stars as the wind billows all around you, snug as a bug in a rug with your fellow burners" and that, to all the people following this curator around the Redwick, was a Burning Man gift provided off playa.

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Ron
6/20/2018 07:34:33 am

I really appreciate you sharing your experience at the Renwick, and your sharing with others while at the Renwick. You made me think some more about the complications: it's great to make this available to the public "off playa" and it may inspire some in their own art and creativity and life, and perhaps even get them to go to TTITD (although that is less important). Yet museums as a whole yank things from their native surroundings, whether it's Firmament (I'll share your comment with Christopher Schardt some time) or Banksy or an ancient Egyptian temple - it's what they do, with positives and negatives. Yet the deeper concern I was reflecting on is when artists start creating for the museums or art market - that won't happen to the ancient Egyptians, but could happen to Burning Man artists. It made me think of this (imperfect) parallel: in a way, Burning Man has been a haven for amateur artists - anyone can bring their art (although it's true that the art grants are a form of partial curation). But it may turn into something like the NCAA, where today's athletes are actually auditioning for careers in professional sports, although most never make it; Burning Man art would change, just has taken place in the NCAA over the years. Maybe that's good, maybe not, but it's different.

Reply
Jack Hall
7/17/2018 02:08:06 pm

Dear Ron:

Thanks for you essay on the Renwick exhibit. I agree with your antipathy about the commodification of Burning Man off the Playa. I have been to Burning Man only 5 times, and I go for the chance to take photos which are unique. I wanted to get other photographers to show their work, so I created a showcase "challenge" on Viewbug.com, asking other photographers to post two of their photos. My hope is to get a large collection of Burning Man photos which can be viewed by all in a single place at no charge, and with very little effort. This is a shameless plug for that venue in the hopes that LOTS of people will post their photos from many different years of Burning Man. There are no prizes other than Viewbug points which are mainly ego points. The location is:
https://www.viewbug.com/challenge/black-rock-city-photos-of-burning-man-photo-challenge-by-jackhall-9918

Please publicize this to as many Burners as possible. Let's create a great photo tribute to Burning Man!

Thanks
Jack Hall AKA Tripod

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    My publications and interests include Hannah Arendt, Jewish Mysticism, Time, Environment, Burning Man - and combinations thereof

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