Construction as Art

Cones marked places where posts would go into the ground
Cones marked places where posts would go into the ground

Coyote said the other day that Black Rock City is the biggest art project on the playa, and we totally agree.

Sometimes the things that are strewn around the playa in the course of building the city look like installations.

Here are a few sights from around the playa over the past several days:

The yard at the Heavy Equipment camp
The yard at the Heavy Equipment camp

The trash fence is sometimes reminiscent of something that Christo and Jeanne-Claude would do
The trash fence is sometimes reminiscent of something that Christo and Jeanne-Claude would do

 

Containers on the playa
Containers on the playa
Cones dividing the lines on Gate road
Cones dividing the lines on Gate road
Crews creating shade
Crews creating shade
A solitary container dropped on the playa
A solitary container dropped on the playa
Trailers waiting for placement in Black Rock City
Trailers waiting for placement in Black Rock City

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the author: John Curley

John Curley (that's me) has been Burning since the relatively late date of 2004, and in 2008 I spent the better part of a month on the playa, documenting the building and burning of Black Rock City in words and pictures. I loved it, and I've been doing it ever since. I was a newspaper person in a previous life, and I spent many years at the San Francisco Chronicle. At the time I left, in 2007, I was the deputy managing editor in charge of Page One and the news sections of the paper. Since then, I've turned a passion for photography into a second career. I shoot for editorial, commercial and private clients. I've also taught a little bit, including two years at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism and a year at San Francisco State University. I live on the San Mateo coast, just south of San Francisco in California.

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