In recent years I have participated in more and more conversations about frustration with our binary political and economic systems. These conversations have not been confined to one side or the other; they happen with people who have aligned themselves on both sides: left-right, boom-bust, liberal-conservative, growth-recession, capitalist-socialist. This ‘one-or-the-other, forced choice is a growing point of conflict in our American culture and is polarizing our society. Burning man is an experience where self-reliance and communal effort not only coexist but thrive. Many of us who have experienced this feel these classic ideologies and doctrines (both of which are over 100 years old) need something of a reboot. Building these effigies in a medium that is traditionally made of paper is a representation of what they are: paper tiger constructs written on paper, not immutable realities. In expressing our feelings about them and burning them down together we can let go of the burden and confinement of outdated systems and ideologies that no longer serve us and be inspired to co-creation of a new future defined by a shared multi-colored spectrum of differences and commonalities.

‘Effigies’ consists of four wooden origami animal sculptures: a bull, bear, an elephant, and a donkey. The sculptures are a blank canvas for Burners to decorate throughout the event before they are burned later in the week. When the effigies are burned away a smaller symbolic metal sculpture remains that communicates principles of infinite possibility and the duality of mind and spirit. \<>/ 

Effigies burned on playa in 2022 at Waking Dreams.