Cathedral of Sorrows & Fears [June 2019] get a link to this artwork

birch plywood, basswood framing, popsicle sticks, assorted scrap wood, melted jolly ranchers
[22.4" L x 16.8" W x 13.8" H]

This was a collaborative and ephemeral work made for Lakes of Fire, a regional Burning Man event. Before the event, Hilary Sparks and I made the basic frame of a cathedral – the walls, stained glass windows (made of melted jolly ranchers 😃), and interior framing. During the event, people could write sorrows and fears they wanted to release on the various bits of wood provided and use those to build the Cathedral. Also during the course of the event, the windows melted and ran in the heat and rain, which made the Cathedral look like it was crying. On the last night of the event, we held a ceremony and burned the Cathedral.

The ceremony had way more emotional impact than I had expected. I definitely want to do more things like this. It was also very intriguing to make something that I knew would be burned in just a few days.