Museums: Renwick Gallery #3

Back by popular demand:  More Burning Man.

We returned to the Burning Man exhibition at the Renwick Gallery for another look.

  

One of the ten principles of Burning Man the event and Burning Man the exhibition is participation, hence the title No Spectators.  As Greg's brother Mike puts it: Don't see the party, Be the party.

As a result, much of the art of Burning Man is participatory.  One example is the Before I Die . . . exhibit pictured below.  Visitors are provided chalk and asked to write what they want to do before dying.      

Here is a closeup of messages on the chalkboard.

Another participatory work of art is The Temple by David Best.  The artist hopes visitors will use the temple as a place for reflection and prayer.

A panoramic photo of the The Temple

A portal of The Temple

The altar in The Temple

The ceiling of The Temple

As part of the process of reflection and prayer, visitors are invited to write notes on small wooden squares and place them on the temple's walls.

  

Greg reflected on Year 2 in Italy and the centuries-old tradition of silence in monasteries and churches.  He wrote the word "Silence" on a square and placed it on a wall.   

Susan reflected on events of the past year and gave thanks for a lesson she learned long ago from her mother. 

Another exhibit was a set of gongs that created soothing music.

To hear the gongs, click on the video below. If you watch closely, you can see the mallets strike the gongs.  

Another musical exhibit is Nova (featured in an earlier blog post).  The work creates an immersive experience blending color, motion and music.  

The video below provides a taste of the experience.

While walking to and from the Reniwck Gallery, we discovered two more of the Burning Man works of art.  Below, you can check out XOXO followed by another outdoor sculpture.  

Below, some random hottie reenacts Tippi Hedren's famous scene in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.

The photo below resembles an earlier photo taken at the National Gallery of Art..

Do two similar photos signal a trend?  Here is the earlier photo.  

Thanks for joining our return visit to No Spectators, The Art of Burning Man.