Camping with the hippies... and art!

You will recall that last week I bade you all farewell to go to Alchemy, Georgia’s version of Burning Man, i.e., a burn.

A burn is many things: festival, camp-out, bonfire, and high weirdness. I tell people that going to a burn is “camping with people who are not like you and me,” which is true no matter who you are.

Part of the fabulosity of a burn is the art that burners bring, and this year was a major explosion in art, particularly burnable art. Besides the Effigy and the Temple (our two main foci), there were seven other pieces that burned over the weekend. It was pretty spectacular.

First, here’s my camp, 3 Old Men:

That is our multicursal labyrinth in front: four entrances, four paths to the center. (We don’t immediately correct those who call it a ‘maze,’ but at some point we will explain the difference.)

In the background is Wizard’s space. Under that huge tent:

…gongs, bowls, bells. Wizard sits in the center and creates “sound baths” at various times during the day. (Wizard is his burn name; many of us have burn names, which makes remembering names that much more difficult, since you have to remember two names for many people and keep them attached to the correct person. My burn name? Old Man Dale. Not particularly exciting, but memorable at least.)

On to the art. In no particular order…

(I will confess up front that I didn’t get the names of all the pieces.) This spiral piece lit up at night, but it’s actually more impressive during the day. A friend of mine who helped work on it during build week said that the math involved was astounding.

N.B.: All the burnable art had to be made from found materials on the property. Regulations prevent us from building out of regular lumber/construction materials, a fact that we ignored until last year.

This was the Effigy. Alchemy has a theme each year, and most years the hippies ignore the theme. This year was a bit different: the theme was Ghost Robot Resurrection, and before you ask — I had to ask, and I was leadership adjacent — it’s because the themes of the burns canceled in 2020 and 2021 were Ghosts and Robots. I suppose it’s good they got it it out of their system.

The Effigy is the main event; we burn it on Saturday night and it’s a huge crowd thing with music and fireworks and noise.

Crowlossus.

Secret Temple: You could write your confession on the structure itself, or inside on pieces of paper.

This piece was then burned.

Robot Graveyard: Burners were encouraged to build robots to bring to the graveyard, to be burned. The org had workshops during the year to teach the skills and encourage the artistry of anyone and everyone.

On Friday night, all the robots were piled up and set on fire.

There’s a big, empty, Central–Park-like area in the middle of the burn called Lake Ruby, named after a film production manager — Marvel movies are often shot there — whose shooting schedule was often delayed by rain turning this spot into a shallow lake. We don’t place camps there, obviously, so it’s become an art garden. (My own GALAXY will go there next year.)

Just a weird little robot doing a weird little robot thing.

This Toilet Earth.

The artist said it was in protest of “everything.”

Not all art was robots.

This is the Temple, a place for letting go. People place memorials to loved ones, pets, relationships, mistakes, anything you need to send on.

We burn the Temple on Sunday night, and it is a much more somber affair than Effigy burn, as you might imagine.

Even the Temple had its robot.

JackO Fierce. This piece was not only made by Fireball, a member of 3 Old Men, but it went to Burning Man itself!

JackO Fierce at night.

I will brag that 3 Old Men had no fewer than six art projects: the labyrinth, Wizard’s sound baths, JackO Fierce, Larry’s Fabric Fun Guys (psychedelic quilts), Duff’s Grubby the Mutant Vehicle (an amazing art car), and our Organization for Mutually Assured Oxytocin Release (a freely offered 20-second hug to anyone who asked). And next year we’ll add GALAXY.

All in all, this Alchemy was one of the best ever: Burners are in general smart, kind, generous, and funny people, and being immersed in that environment for five days was incredibly restorative. You should try it sometime.

UPDATE: Seven. We had seven art projects. I forgot about March from the Dark Side, which was a triumph.