This giant praying mantis was one of many art works featured at Burning Man 2014.
The praying mantis appeared out of a dust storm with wings flapping. He was one big guy. Think humongous. Think scary. Peggy and I had to go check him out. It was art— and art is our primary reason for attending Burning Man.
When you arrive at Burning Man, the greeters give you a map that shows where most of the art is. The 2014 art map showed 233 installations scattered across the Playa and throughout Black Rock City. Since weather had delayed us by two days, there was no way we could see it all. So we decided to go “random.” We would wander around and check out whatever caught our attention. Following are a few examples.
Much of Burning Man art is interactive. This bird immediately attracted Peggy. She climbed up the ramp and into its stomach. The bird’s wings were designed to be raised or lowered by pedal power. Peggy went to work. A crowd urged her on.
Another view.
The geometric lines of this sculpture caught my attention.
Shooting from a different angle, I caught the Man in the background.
Much art at Burning Man incorporates a sense of humor. I called this guy Big Ears. He was wired for sound. (Photo by Peggy Mekemson.)
Love is big at Burning Man. (grin) The Embrace sculpture can be seen in the distance through the E.
Peggy caught this interesting reverse perspective on the love letters. (Photo by Peggy Mekemson.)
The big O in Love was hard to resist.
This sculpture reminded me of a Hollywood set piece.
Burners love any sculpture you can climb. Often, as in this case, climbing is encouraged.
Wind operated this kinetic sculpture.
These cubes created the illusion of climbing far into the sky. (Photo by Don Green.)
For the past several years, strange alien creatures have been found far out on the Playa near the perimeter fence.
NEXT BLOG: Wandering around Black Rock City.
Wandering through Time and Place 
WOW! Amazing!
Fun, isn’t it Cindy. –Curt
That last picture looks like me after a long day.
Great stuff! I think it would be worth it to take a trip to see Burning Man just for the potential fiction fodder it would give me!
Thanks Carrie. One week should provide a year’s worth of material. It could for my blog except I have so many other things to write about. 🙂 –Curt
What a great experience! Thank you!
As always… You are welcome. –Curt
A BM post as enticing as ever. We both love the preying mantis but the octopus is Don’s favourite.
Thanks Curt
Alison
Hard to beat El Pulpo. LOL
More incredible art – thanks for sharing, Curt!
Always fun for me. –C
Amazing. I had no idea there was so much elaborate sculpture there. I’m guessing that these pieces were created specifically for Burning Man. I’ve long thought it would be fun to attend. Thanks to your posts I now want to go more than ever.
You are right, Bill. These sculptures are created for Burning Man. Some are burned, such as Embrace, but others such as the Mantis, end up in communities on permanent display. –Curt
I always look forward to the Burning Man posts – something unique and unusual every time!! Great one here, Curt.
Thanks, GP. Doing the Burning Man posts is always a lot of fun for me as well. –Curt
As always, your Burning Man posts never disappoint. I love the LOVE sculpture!
Each year, there is a different word sculpture. One year it was a large MOM. Peggy had to get in the middle of that one. 🙂 –Curt
They need to put the two together – LOVE MOM:) – Ginette
Peggy’s laughing… and agrees. 🙂
Great art work, great creativity. My favourite two? The praying mantis and the bird. Oh, I like Love too! Was it difficult pedalling the bird?
LOL Peggy had to pedal really hard to slowly move the wings. –Curt
Work, work, sweet work for the Burning Man audience 😀
Sweet, sweaty, work. 🙂
What an amazing experience and such fantastic pictures…
Thanks Lumar. I keep returning to Burning Man because of the experience— and the opportunities for photography. –Curt
The Mantis, The Embrace seen from a distance and the perspective cubes all got high marks from me.
Mantis was my favorite this year, once I got beyond El Pulpo, Embrace and the rhino. The cubes have been returned from previous years and I have always found them fascinating. –Curt
Ah, there’s the answer to my question. I thought I remembered the cubes. It’s such a neat concept.
Good memory.
The interactive art is always a wonderful surprise. I have to admit, though, that pedaling the bird to make the wings fly was quite the challenge! I don’t think we would have lifted off at the rate I was going….grin. Peggy
No, we’d still be up there in the Nevada desert. 🙂
Really love all of these but if I have to pick a favorite, it would be the Cubes in the sky..So creative & beautiful..
I see why so many people flock here each year, you can fill your artistic tank to last until the next BM
🙂
Or make a bigger tank. (grin)
Did you see any correspondence between “Big Ears” and African tribal masks? I certainly did. And the praying mantis looks like he’s engaged in a little preying. I really liked him — maybe the most. Well, except for the kinetic sculpture that looks like Joan Miro meets a midwestern water tower.
Big ears could have definitely served as a tribal mask. Had he shown up in a remote jungle he might have been worshipped. Especially if he started shooting fire. Loved your “Joan Miro meets a midwestern water tower” description. As for Mantis, he really was partially hidden by a dust storm and looked quite scary. –Curt
Praying mantis has to be the pick. Just gorgeous.
Wasn’t he a magnificent creature! I’d love to have him in my front yard. Out here in the boonies, however, someone might use him for target practice. On a dark night, it might even be understandable. 🙂 –Curt
On most nights 🙂 I’m just imagining him sitting outside my bedroom window, casting a shadow on the walls as the wind blows the trees backwards and forwards….
That might add to your nightmare quotient. 🙂 It would be directly out of an African tale. BTW, we had the largest praying mantis I have ever seen work our screen door in Liberia. Along with several bats and a tree frog, she came around nightly for a bug feast.
The bats in Liberia were outside, I hope?
Yes they were. LOL But I could sit in a chair with my face a few inches away from the screen and watch the show. Fascinating. BTW, I’ve been in very batty places; they are great at dodging. 🙂 —Curt
Reblogged this on Earth Speaks Out and commented:
Rise up in your passion and art.