Kaleidoscope Hole - Burning Man Honoraria Project 2024
Kaleidoscope Hole was a conceptual, life-sized, interactive kaleidoscope made of 3 rotatable, metal rings (8x8ft, 6x6ft, 4x4ft) that formed a kaleidoscopic tunnel pointed at the man through one end, and faced the sunrise on the other end. Illuminated by sound syncing LEDs at night, it engaged us into a collaborative unique psychedelic journey with it and with other citizens. And on a few special nights, we were able to link up with projection mapper Glitchgeist for some incredible added visuals.
After seeing the art at Burning Man in 2023, I was so inspired, and it led me to dreaming up the vision of the Kaleidoscope Hole sculpture. The concept stemmed from my personal love of kaleidoscopes… the initial concept idea was to create a large kaleidoscopic view that people could enjoy looking at together versus individually. After doing some research, I learned that creating a gigantic kaleidoscope would be pretty complicated, so instead of a literal kaleidoscope the idea transformed into a conceptual kaleidoscope.
I then brought together the team, secured the honoraria grant, and oversaw the project through to completion - which was no easy feat. There were times I did not think it was going to happen at all, and that was before we even arrived on playa.
Then it was go-time! With some help, I packed up the rental truck and then drove a very slow, scenic drive out to Black Rock City in Nevada. We arrived late into the night, very early in the week, and it initially took us forever to locate where our camp was to be built. But then we located the RV and were home sweet home for the next two weeks. It was unusually calm and clear that first night, and from the top of the RV we soaked in the view of the city just starting to come alive as we waited for more campmates to arrive.
After the build team arrived and we began to unload and prep for assembly, we quickly realized there was a super critical calibration error in the laser cutting metal work… making the next phase of the build a lot more complicated than we had planned. After some discussion, Chase and Ian spent the better part of the next few days making critical cuts into the metal sculpture in order for it to be stabilized and built. Lots of very, very loud metal grinding work that went late into the night, which we are very sorry about! We were then fighting against time, because for Honoraria art it’s a requirement to be built on playa by a certain deadline, which we were totally about to blow… but then a storm rolled in and saved us, granting us the extended deadline we needed.
Finally, the storm passed, conditions were clear, and we were ready to get building. It was an experience hitting open playa, and searching that vast landscape… for a literal CD laying flat on the ground with nothing but a little pink urchin on top signaling your build location. BUT ONCE WE FOUND IT, it was time to start building.
A huge thank you to everyone who lended a hand and helped - through heat, wind, sun and dust - to put together this sculpture of a million parts… and who manually hand-wired and caulked all the pieces together due to that laser cutting error. Seeing her come to life after everything was such a special moment that I’ll not soon forget.
While she was built, mostly functioning, and looking spectacular, there was still a lot of work required throughout the week to keep the sculpture, the lighting and batteries especially, safe, charged and functioning. At one point one of our batteries was even stolen…
But in the end, it was worth it to bring this crazy idea to life, and I am grateful for all of the supportive people behind the scenes who helped make it possible. A special acknowledgement and thank you to Chase Hanna for joining and being the mastermind behind the intricate sculptural design and petal work. To Shibaji Shome for all the tireless work on the tech-side of the project and for keeping the project powered and lighted the entire week. To Chris Roy for all of the CAD design and engineering support, and especially to TerryDeCosta (also for engineering support) and the entire BG crew for your unwavering support and belief in me as an artist and friend, and providing a safe and supportive space to call home - and keeping us well fed - during a fun, but long and demanding two weeks on playa while building this sculpture. More shoutouts to Ion and Caitlin, Geordy and Rian. And to Ian, Mike, Glitchgeist, Pink Bunny art car and the rest of the crew who brought music, and gathered everyone together for an unforgettable final night celebration at the sculpture after the man burn. And thank you Viraj Singh and all of the photographers who captured so many incredible shots!
Immediately after leaving Burning Man we called our builder Tiger Services / Andrea Evangelista to discuss the fiber laser issue and discuss steps for resolution. He told us to bring her in, and that he would support getting it repaired and functioning properly. He had been a trusted team member, and so we brought the sculpture to him to await repairs. Unfortunately, instead of making the repairs or communicating anything, he scrapped this beautiful sculpture entirely - or so I found out - and still has all of our batteries and lighting, and won’t respond to us for a long time now.
Other artists please be warned about trusting and working with Tiger Services aka Andrea Evangelista out of Los Angeles.
I’m sad that no one else will get to experience this incredible sculpture, which took over a years worth of hard work from an entire team of individuals plus additional supporters to create and bring to life. But the fact that she lived at all brings me peace.
