The project is inspired by the teracota warriors of China. Each artisan put his face on a statue generating individualism in a sea conformity. I circled burning man turned off by a misconception, a sense that people conform through a shared non-conformity; the boots, fur ,and Blinky shit… When there I realized their function and began to see how weird and individual all those people were. This inspires the first phase of the experience. At a distance all look the same but once among them you can see they are individual. Leading up to the burn you are vandalized, altered, stretched by the thoughts and intentions of others. This is the inspiration for encouraging vandalism: draw on them, spray paint them, add a spoon necklace… Then the burn, for moment everyone is transformed by rare expression of impermanence. All these individuals are all the same again, drawn to this place by a open heart. This is expressed post burn; transformed from figures with their own likeness and days of vandalism to a body of wire all the same, a heart is revealed as the thing we all share. As we leave changed, the figures leave transformed. Not sold, but grabbed by who ever is clever enough to drag it of the Playa.

The Man’s Army is 100 human figures standing in a 10 by 10 grid pattern. At a distance all appear the same but upon closer inspection each has an individual face. The face is a 3D printed relief modeled on a scan of a real person.  Through burner participation the figures are “vandalized” through the week then burned to reveal they are all the same under their skin.

Built for Burning Man 2019: Metamorphosis with support of The Honorarium. The Man’s Army burned Friday at sunset.

themansarmy.com 

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