Help us bring a new art project called “BLACK! Asé” to Burning Man, featuring 30ft sculptures of Black Burners. The artist, Erin Douglas, started the Black Burner Project in 2018, dedicated to capturing images of people of colour at Burning Man.
Erin is in the vanguard of female Black artists who are bringing big energy and intention to the event. BLACK Asé is made up of three, thirty foot images of Black Burners with scaffolding erected behind each to create a shady gathering space in the open playa. Talks, teas, toasts and other events both curated and spontaneous will occur here.
“Asé is an African Yoruba word of affirmation meaning Amen, so it is, or it shall be. It is the power to create that which you speak. The power to make things happen and produce change, and also refers to the spiritual life and energy force that flows through all things.” – Erin Douglas
Please support Erin and help make this amazing project happen.
We Are From Dust was created to support Burning Man artists, by exhibiting their work in public places, and to showcase large scale participatory art away from the desert. We are mindful that not everyone gets TTITD, talk less of hanging out in the desert, but it’s acceptable to conclude that the art experience has changed many of our lives, minds, and made a positive contribution to our society.
We’ve spent the past two years, during the pandemic, pondering how to address the needs of aspiring artists, and came up with a project called Art Barr None, which is to support new artists in their pursuit to exhibit at Burning Man, and “BLACK! Asé” by Erin Douglas is our first project.
“WAFD has been having a blast helping artists get their creations into these Multiverse worlds. Our mission is to mount exhibitions of participatory art in public spaces, and now we’re doing it in virtual public spaces, because well, here we are (thanks COVID)!” – Will Chase President, WAFD
As the date typically set for Gate opening approaches, we’ve taken a collective inhale and set out to help coordinate the art for the first Black Rock City VR.
We’ve been working with artists from this year and years past to bring, erect, and sometimes, resurrect their art in the virtual space.
Please read this excellent article by Rusty Blazenhoff for Boing Boing about the virtual playa. We can’t wait to see you there. And, think about donating to us, to help support the artists.
We’re excited to announce that We Are From Dust is collaborating with Burning Man Project to manage and place virtual art installations in several of the Universes that will constitute Black Rock City 2020, at this year’s virtual Burn, aka The Multiverse.
In a recent post on the Burning Man Journal, Burning Man Project revealed:
“[T]here are to be eight virtual Universes and the standalone Temple experience in the 2020 Burning Man Multiverse — each independently produced by members of the Burning Man community who have demonstrated their commitment to the 10 Principles.”
While each of these worlds offers a unique and different slice of the Burning Man experience, WAFD will be supporting all of them in their quest to include art from Burning Mans past.
For further information visit the Burning Man Kindling to explore the different Universes in more depth, and to learn how you can participate and co-create.
The crowdfunding is over, and we’d like to thank everyone that donated towards our support for artists whose work is in our Point San Pablo Harbor exhibition.
There are a few items left from the campaign, such as stickers, patches, postcards, and hoodies, with exclusive items from Paige Tashner, Kate Raudenbush, and Peter Hazel. Kindly contact us to find out what’s available via email info@wearefromdust.org.
If you would like to contribute towards our mission, kindly use this link to make a donation.
This is the actual prototype of the PurrPods head. It’s unique and is being offered as a perk to support artists whose works are on display at @pspharbor.
Crowdfunding during the global lockdown is hard business. Here’s Yoms with an update on how to help us support artists whose art we are exhibiting at Point San Pablo Harbor.
With the world being slapped sideways by the coronavirus pandemic, We Are From Dust is focusing on helping the people in our community who need it most. In our case, that’s working artists who, like so many of the self-employed, don’t necessarily enjoy the privilege of having a robust safety net beneath them when the bottom drops out.
We started a crowdfund campaign right before this virus started its temporary reign of terror, originally with the intent of mounting more art exhibitions beyond our inaugural Point San Pablo Harbor sculpture park. And while we considered canceling the nascent campaign out of respect for the world’s greater concern in this moment, we decided instead to continue, and give everything we raise to these artists, compensating them for the amazing work they’ve already created, and which we all get to enjoy (and will again).
So in this critical time, we’ll do what we can to take care of those in immediate need, and when the world is once again ready to connect in person, we’ll be ready too. We’ll keep our next five exhibitions in our back pocket, and we’ll be prepared to install them as soon as is reasonable, because gathering around participatory art will be a powerful psychic salve when that time comes. So yes, even in the face of a global pandemic, we believe our mission is more important than ever. Any assistance you can offer is greatly appreciated.
Please consider a donation to our crowdfund campaign to support these artists. If you’re otherwise inclined, please consider a donation to support the most vulnerable in our community through other sustaining fundraising efforts. If you have some of those to suggest, please link them in the comments.
Be smart, be safe, and may you and yours be well. Thank you!
Every vision starts with an inspiration, which is often hastily condensed into a succinct message and eventually shared to test the waters of public opinion and involvement. For We Are From Dust, it was the difficult task of verbalising our beliefs that art has transformative powers, and engaging or interacting with art can lead to positive change within ourselves, our communities, and the world — and then sharing that vision with friends and family to see how it would resonate.
Now, we’re ready to take a leap of faith and present our vision to the world in the hope that it will touch, move, and inspire people to get involved, support, and amplify it.
So what have we got to offer, I hear you ask? Four amazing installations from trailblazing artists, all installed on a publicly-accessible private space for you to experience. And IF you aren’t close to Point San Pablo Harbor where we are hosting our inaugural exhibition, we have the next best thing – a limited edition of postcards featuring the work of our artists; Kate Raudenbush, Paige Tashner, Michael Christian, and Peter Hazel. There are five in total, and a donation of $20+ shipping will guarantee we get a pack in the post to you.
Help Create Change with Art – Donate, Support, Like
There are so many ways to get involved with We Are From Dust. You could also consider giving a one-time donation or, even better, a recurring donation — even if it’s just $15 or $20 a month*. Every little bit helps us support the artists who create this art and exhibit it in places for everyone to enjoy. Like/follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter and forward this email to friends. Taking just one minute of your time to help us amplify our message makes a real difference.
We’re excited with what’s to come and we hope you are, too.
When we got started with We Are From Dust, we had a clear vision. We would mount exhibitions of participatory art in public spaces for people to enjoy. But beyond that, the specifics — what, where and how — were a bit to be determined, depending on how this whole thing rolled out.
And as things are becoming more clear, we could use your support. Here’s why …
As we’ve been working this last year on our inaugural exhibition at Point San Pablo Harbor — which has effectively become the testing ground for our venture — people have taken notice. We hadn’t quite expected it, but turns out lots of folks would love to have art in their backyard. And lots of people have art to offer up. So as the opportunities started piling up around our feet, we wrapped a strategy around the possibilities.
Asterpod being enjoyed at Point San Pablo Harbor (Photo by David Hill)
A 3-Pronged Plan
Here’s our plan, and how you can help.
Our next step, close on the heels of PSPH (a public/private location), is to mount exhibitions in a civic space and in a formal art space (museum or gallery). We believe having a 3-pronged exhibition strategy (public/private, civic, and professional spaces) makes good sense, because each has its challenges and opportunities to learn about, and a variety of exhibition types will demonstrate what we can do, and with whom.
We have been in ongoing discussions with the city of American Canyon, at the foot of Napa Valley, about putting art in a few different locations for public display. We hope that will be our first civic exhibition.
Simultaneously, we’re talking with folks to put some of Paige Tashner’s Purr Pods on an estate in Bristol, UK. And there’s a beautiful farm and distillery in Hudson Valley, New York that will be getting a stunning piece of art (no spoilers) this Spring. Those are the publicly-accessible private spaces we’re currently working on.
Each of these opportunities presents its own unique challenges, whether it’s working with government bureaucracy (bless its heart), handling liability of working in a public/private space, or the various logistical requirements of working in different environments. Those are manageable problems. But the most challenging thing is that our team is only so many people, living in only so many places.
To be able to share art as broadly as we want to, we needed a better way to go about it.
Participate!
So while we continue to do our own exhibitions, we’re going to create playbooks describing in exhaustive detail how to create these kinds of exhibitions, and we’re going to delegate the installation and management of certain exhibitions to skilled local production teams. This will give us way more reach, and heck, taken together, WAFD’s team has over 100 years of accumulated experience doing this kind of work, so why not share the wisdom, right? We’re also going to work with local groups to activate community around the art at these sites, creating opportunities for people to engage and connect.
One thing’s for sure: the art’s not going to show itself! If you’d like to be part of our exhibition or activation team — no matter where you live, or your skill set — or would otherwise help us realize WAFD’s mission to get interactive art out into the world, do reach out to us. And of course, in lieu of sweat equity, we’ll always be happy to accept (tax-deductible!) financial and material donations that help our cause.
