This is it – the glorious first sight of registered artworks that are being funded this year. In total, this year’s artworks will be funded to the tune of no less than R600,000 – and every penny is raised directly from ticket sales. As you would know, our event and organisation receives no sponsorship of any kind – so we’re really happy that it’s possible to support artists and artworks to this extent, which is the most we’ve ever had to allocate.
Ready to see & hear about what lies in store for AfrikaBurn X? Read on…
Anvil Blowing
A Tankwa Town classic. By Charl Bothma and Camp Anvil.
Anyanwu
The 2016 NowNowTribe proposal honours the unity of the NowNowTree, seeing it grow into a grove, with a burning core and welcoming bowers in array.
The core – named Helios for the Greek God of the Sun – is a dynamic sculpture consisting of frames allowing rotation about mutually perpendicular axes. Once set in motion around these axes, the light point sources on the spinning frames create static images through ‘persistence of vision’. These lights will illuminate both Helios and the surrounding grove; as the sphere spins – potentially by interaction with Burners – the frame will be rendered invisible as luminous patterns map its extremities.
The surrounding hyperbolic paraboloids in a pin-wheel array offer shade, shelter, light at night and coves of comfort. Like tribesmen and -women we gather in sheltered spaces around our dancing fires to share stories and experiences, nights and days in fellowship. The spaces under these expressive structures – neither enclosed nor exposed – invite Burners to rest, recharge, collect their thoughts, wander from their minds and track the patterns of the shade, ever changing with the trajectory of the Sun. Approach from any side is a fascinating and welcoming experience. The grove surrounding Helios pays homage – ever bowing and turning toward the Giver of Light.
~The NowNow Tribe
Awakening
In many religions, the lotus is a sacred symbol of purity and awakening. With its roots in the mud, it rises perfectly on a slender stem, symbolising a triumph of purity. It closes its petals every night to reawaken. This is also a symbol of new birth and non-attachment. Our vision is that it will hold the space for an awakening of a new decade of AfrikaBurn, as a change agent in this world. Purity rising from the dust…..
~By Verity Maud
Bottle Skull
The artwork is a 6-metre high steel framed skull and cross (X) bones. The steel frame is clad in a chicken-wire skin and the exterior surface is clad with 300, 1000 and 5000ml recycled blue plastic water bottles. Lit from within, the skull will be a blue glowing reminder of the ever increasing impact that our plastic consumption is having upon the planet.
Although there will be significant number of bottles used to produce this artwork, they are a drop in the ocean compared to what is actually in our oceans. The strain placed on our global eco-system by one item, such as plastic-bottled water, is but one of the myriad non bio-degradable products we as guardians of the plant, need to address.
~By Alan Munro and Agent Skully
CurveXiouS
CurveXiouS appears as a slender and delicate structure that would look at home in any outlandish landscape while appearing as if it may hide modern communications technology within its timber frame. Consisting of four six metre posts, splayed at the bottom to intersect two thirds of the way up and opening again towards its highest point. Fins curving around the posts at regular intervals, at first, bulge outward and gradually curve in as they approach the joining point and then symmetrically curve out again to suggest an hourglass appearance. CurveXiouS pays subtle homage to the concept and theme of X.
CurveXiouS is not intended to be big, imposing and dominating the landscape. Rather it stands as a subtle and slender structure showing mostly the crossed posts from a distance. It surprises the viewers as they approach by offering different views at different angles. With sunsets as backdrop it promises to offer beautiful views and photographs up close and from further away.
~By Rian Brand and The Artvark Taxi Association
Disco Sandwich
Cheese is part of the fabric of western culture since the dawn of pre-history, which is why it makes the perfect post-modern analogy for bla bla bla. I’m gonna roll up on packed dancefloors with my grill and make motherfuckers sandwiches at any old time of day or night, but ideally super late at night. That simple, really. A few improvements this year, learned from last year. Basically, simpler sandwiches and more of them. Also delivered sooner in the week. Get cheesy quick. Something for veggies and meaties, ham or cheese and chutney. I might even take rye bread this year. If I make bank I’d like to have a companion whiskey shot bar.
Namaste motherfuckers.
~By Duncan Larkin
GABRB3 + (MAOA + BDNF + 5-HTTLPR) = ? ? = X. X = THE RETURN TO CHAOS
The work is about the return to chaos in a sentimental way, like my work, putting knowledge aside and embracing impulse, instinct, spontaneity and expression.
The ideals of anarchy and these autonomous zones for freedom from the chaos stemming out of the complications and chaos of control and order.
The paradoxical element of Metaphysics.
Chaos and order.
Control. and anarchy
Form. and. No-form
Form. And amorphic
Control. And Renouncement
Ignorance. And understanding Illusion and reality
And on and on
Transcendance of judgement, labeling, classification through insight.
The title is based on genetic research that draws a link between variations in GABRB3 and the autism spectrum known as Asperger’s syndrome and empathy levels in the general population. There is also links between certain gene variations and superior intelligence and autism in those same variations.
Creating a big painting in the mode of Trance in public whilst dancing. Presented within an installation. Making use of traditional elements that brings on trance like music, dance and visuals and living energy.
The installation is sculptural and architectural. It has a stage for musical happenings and a cave for gatherings for debate and spontaneous improvised musical interactions.
This individual work is conceptually totally in line with founding ideas of Burning Man and AfrikaBurn
The work is aware on different levels: Aware materials – boxes and scrap paper, natural cloth and invader plants. The philosophical statement gives the story behind it.
~By Anthea Delmotte and The Odd Bunch of The Odd Bunch
laghuis
laghuis: laughter house
A single sound can change everything.
laghuis is an interactive space that asks its participants to do the seemingly impossible and pause for breath in the intoxicating chaos of the Burn world. A modern cave for the desert dwellers, laghuis beckons participants from the Binnekring to a quieter place outside of the hubbub and encourages them to play with light and sound. Featuring illuminated hyena and jackal heads surmounting the structure to guide you in, an echo feedback system that gives the aural illusion of a cave-like space and cut outs in the walls of elegantly simple designs that pay homage to the memory of early humans.
As AfrikaBurn reaches its tenth year and we turn our thoughts to the cyclical significance of a decade, we dedicate laghuis to the participants who seek a place of reflection that can exclusively be experienced in Tankwa Town. Some of our most memorable moments have been made when we’ve pushed ourselves to venture out past the inner circle, and we want to build an interactive space that will pique the curiosity of other Burners and encourage them to explore a little more of the desert we think of as our home away from home.
As the new cycle approaches, we need to remove the old to make way for the new. The decor features carrion feeders, that serve as a reminder that our fears are a cleansing force and that by confronting them we allow for new growth. Fire is the carrion eater of the plant kingdom, and thus we intend to burn the piece in a celebratory way.
laghuis will decisively be a space of its own, separate from the center of the party, as comforting as it is provocative, solid and protective from the elements but intentionally impermanent.
~By Adriaan Wessels and The Carrion my Wayward Son
Life Love And Death
Tree made from Sash cord, rocks suspended as the roots, As with the Love Life and Everything Else, AB 2015, the 2nd installation will be larger build. Looking from the top the tree will be in the shape of a X with 4 corners representing the 4 elements, that is represented towards the human body and death.
Water, Earth Fire and Air.
Earth- the Base of the tree,
Fire – a fire pit and candle alter.
Air – wind chimes and cloth strips.
Water – water sprayer on top of the piece.
As with the Love life and Everything at AfrikaBurn 2015, the tree will represent the importance of life love and death. 3 absolutes that define us as human yet they are so uncertain. Nobody knows when life will happen, or who and what we will love and the ultimate: when our deaths are to be expected.
With AfrikaBurn 2015, myself and my family was dealt with that reality. The passing of my Mother was a important event in my life, to understand the importance of death and the beauty it holds. Life Love and Death, will be a tribute to her passing and the growth for myself and my Father. She has left a deep space with in me. The strongest feminine energy in my life had move on.
Through this discovery of this void, I am filling it slowly again and starting to recognise the balance between Feminine and Masculine. The installation will hold both, with incorporation the elements:
Fire – Strong Masculine,
Earth and Water – Combination of Masculine and Feminine
Air – Strong Feminine
The space can be used by participants for meditation, chill area, listening to the soundscape and audio books and cooling down under the sprayer, using a pump system, making it possible for participants to gift water to the structure. Using the direction of the sitting space covered by shadecloth, one will be able to see the Sun set through the tree, and at night sitting around the fire looking through the into the Binnekring.
The burning of the installation will be for turn a page to a new chapter in our lives.
~By Werner Strauss and The Rooibaard Collective
Lizzie X Edition
Lizzy is a life size mechanised T-rex puppet that runs across the desert ON FIRE!
Egon Tania & the Fata Morganas
Looping Louie
Our artwork is a human-ish sized version of a German kiddie game named Looping Louie.
I borrow this description from the interweb: “In Loopin’ Louie, a battery-powered motor placed in the center of the table rotates a boom with a little plastic plane. Four radial arms lead out to the players’ barns and the chickens they’re trying to protect. Each barn has a little lever, which is used to knock the rotating plane away from your chickens and hopefully into someone else’s. When only one player has chickens remaining, he or she wins the game. Very silly and very addictive.”
So we’re making it bigger, replacing a battery motor with a human-paddling-a-bicycle motor. We are planning to swop the chickens & plane with more creative creations.
~By Angelique Barnard and The HappyTimeFunSquad
Mr. Tower
Mr. Tower is an exploration of text with particular reference to graffiti lettering. The lettering is expressed in form a tower. The aim of this structure is to give the viewer an experiential sense of graffiti lettering while providing shade for the burners
My rendition of graffiti is in one sense not graffiti at all. It is more an exploration of how language works to help construct our realities. Ultimately the intention is to explore the aesthetics in written text through the use and manipulation of prime shapes that make up the core elements of our Roman alphabet. I explore how we read, imagine and engage with our city spaces through creating ambiguous letterforms that make up this imagined city. Sometimes I create an imagined location, to re-enact my experience of walking the city reading graffiti and translate this into three-dimensional form that invites the viewer to do the same.
One might recall Kazimir Malevich’s red square (1915) and white square as total detachment from anything figurative. Similarly, our alphabet makes no reference to the natural world and therefore its meaning is attributed rather than inherent. It is an abstract series of codes assembled and then attributed over time with meaning that accrues to establish a literary sense. My aim is to reconfigure these attributed values in pursuit of developing a new graffiti language devoid of stigma.
Graffiti works conventionally aim to create awareness about the socio-political climate through slogans. In South Africa, graffiti had political ends, virtually all the time. My work engages these politics of public space that have now arguably shifted to access of space: this ranges from trading purposes like street vendors or minibus taxi owners’ negotiating for taxi routes or merely walking ‘freely’ within the city.
By Sandile Radebe
Pendulum
Big spinny thing.
Luke Atkinson and Camp Anvil
Ring of Fire
Our aim is create something mesmerizing, go big or go home sort of speak. A person’s view is approx. 160*, therefore a Ring of Fire of 320* is an absolute head twister. Because we expect this to have an epic impact and it seems logic to work together with the organization. We wish to use this signal as fire announcements.
By Ronald Duikersloot and Mike Wessling
Simoom
Our journey in South Africa will determine the aesthetic and function of ‘Simoom’. A unique creative philosophy will be forged over the duration of the project : a result of the collaboration of artists and locals involved, and the materials sourced along our route from Cape Town. The core of ‘Simoom’ is a ‘dust-churning’ kinetic machine, aimed at producing an outcome comparable to a controlled tornado or dust storm. We would like to work with two students (18+) chosen from the Cape Craft and Design Institute, (a non-profit organization) to travel with us on a week-long journey. This will consist of a 1300 km road-trip from Cape Town to Tankwa Town Reserve. En route, we will visit Helen Martin’s ‘Owl House’ for creative inspiration. On arrival, we would like to recruit a number of locals to participate in building the work on site. Our travel archive of sketched ideas, maquettes and notes will be collated into the sculptural outcome.
The piece will be a literal response to the places we have been, the site upon which the work is constructed, and the materials we have collected. This will be guided by the group dynamic that has evolved during our shared experience.
At AfrikaBurn, we want to build a spectacle using machinery as the magic tool. It will be an organic experience of making sculpture, recreating nature, and a collaborative experiment between the persons involved.
To get more of an idea, here are artworks that influence us;
- Les Deux Plateaux (two levels) by Daniel Buren, 1985-86,
- Open- Air art museum at Pedvale, Latvia, by Ojars Feldbergs and others, from 1992 onwards.
- The Owl House, South Africa by Helen Martins b.1945-76
- Le Cyclop, 1969, Jean Tinguely, Milly La Foret, France,
We hope that the success of the work, and participation of locals in its construction will encourage the community to adopt the piece in the wake of Afrikaburn.
By Hannah Schmidt and Toby Poolman
Steampunk Bug Burlesque
It symbolises the elemental power of light. The insects represent innocence, in all its splendour and diversity. The entomologists and exterminators symbolise the desire to control innocence and diversity, either by destroying it, or capturing it. The human’s sometimes succed, but some are infected with the power of the insects and take on their characteristics.
A street lamp is the centre piece around which performers, dressed as insects, entomologists and insect exterminators, circulate as the procession moves forward. The streetlights are the DJ’s, with lamp-like structures attached to their heads. The element of the lamps are LED lights attached to the headgear of the DJ’s, their eyes behind large LED covered visors. One will play music, the other mix in the buzzing and chirruping of insects.
The insect costumes are glamorous and sexy, including a praying mantis, various splendid moths, dragonflies, butterflies, crickets and golden Christmas beetles. The humans are steampunk entomologists, equipped with butterfly nets, magnifying glasses and Victorian inspired scientific paraphernalia.
By Tenille Lindeque and The Steampunk Saloon
Step Sequencer
We all love rhythm and melody….and patterns. Pedalling your own unique patterns of pegs produce your own unique looped sequence of rhythm, bass and melody.
The artwork is an interactive musical instrument consisting of a rhythm section, a bass marimba and alto marimba. A steel A-frame holds a “conveyor belt” consisting of 32 wooden slats with holes in them. Also attached to the frame is a rhythm section consisting of plastic drums and various pieces of scrap metal, as well as a wooden bass marimba, and alto marimba. Pegs that fit into the holes in the slats are provided and players choose where to place them. The belt with the slats is driven by the bicycle pedals which creates a 32 step loop sequence. The pegs trigger specific drums or notes depending on where they are positioned in the slats. In this way the pattern of the pegs is transformed into a musical sequence of rhythm, bassline and melody. The pedals determine the tempo.
Izan Greyling and Synchro-ni-City
Beat and Breath
The idea behind Beat and Breath is as simple as the basic fundamentals that everyone shares. Life, body and mind. It is also complex in the way we experience life with every breath and heartbeat and how that describes our current state of being. Every moment we experience can be measured and translated by how slow or fast these basic and essential body mechanisms function.
By Lucille Barnard
The Elusive Tankwa Stofadil
When riding the R355 be afraid be very afraid. A print history of the Stofadil along with examples of the terrifying beast.
Paul Fletcher and Team Stofadil
The Lost Couple Find God
Through mask, the performers use heightened, improvised, imagistic theatre to entertain, enthrall and enlighten AfrikaBurners.
Ridiculous Ritualistic Rebellion.
Ten masked gods: giant-headed, larger-than-life, fantastical, surreal, imaginary deities have come upon the Earth unannounced and go wheresoever they goddamn please.
Mischievously conducting ceremonies of rebirth, sacrifice and purification as they wander kaal-voet through the desert. They heed the call of the needy and ignore the shrieks of the self-righteous. They are grace, fear and impishness incarnate. The Irreverent Ones impertinently explore the nature of the divine as they encounter the Burn for the first time. Gods-go-walkabout and explore other structures, events and installations on the Playa, indiscriminately blessing and cursing passersby as they float on. Spontaneous, improvised performances arise out of encounters with The Spiritual Playground and the Temple Transformed.
By Kyla Davis
The Moment
What does ten imply? Ten is something important, it is a border, it is an occasion. Something was before and something will be after it but ten is a milestone which divides these periods. Ten is always a part of the past and a part of the future, and it is very important by itself. Ten is birth. Ten is this exact Moment X!
Our Egg has a crack, its shell is about to fall apart. The tendons try to hold it together but the process of birth has already begun. For the whole festival we will freeze this Moment X and give people a chance not only to observe and think about it but to know how does that feel… Well, to REMEMBER!
And it is very important to burn our art because fire will explode the shell, symbolizing the birth and finally making it happen: Ten will start a new era.
In our art we think about this ‘Moment X’ – a milestone between the past and the future. We see it as birth. A huge Egg made of wood with lots of cracks – the miracle is just about to happen. The Egg is in the air, supported by 9 wooden tendons stretching from the ground in an effort to hold it together but the process has already begun. And it will be complete in the end of the Festival.
All art is made of wood and it is interactive. Participants can walk up the tendons which serve as stairs, and get inside the comfy Egg through the crack to calm down, relax and remember this feeling…
By Sema Payain and Sasha Mironov, Sema Payain & LDS crew
X Here
X Marks The Spot
Here lies Your Moment in Time
to leave the past in the past
and become Your Future.
Stand Here.
Imagine Your life,
the world as You dream it.
Feel this in it fullest possibility, true.
Here, in this feeling, lies Your future.
Right here, Right now.
This moment. You living.
Your truth. Your future.
Blessings on You Being Your Further Here Now.
So essentially it is about THE CHOICE TO LIVE THE SOLUTIONS OF OUR FUTURE. Therefore be the future now.
Glittering Gold X marking the moments of people becoming their (and those around them) treasure now.
By Nix Davies
X-Hale
This is a playful interactive piece that makes us conscious of the most simple essence of life – breath.
The artwork will be a collection of small and large inflatable organic abstract forms taking inspiration from lichen, fungus, coral or microscopic forms. These will be manufactured from mainly white plastic sheeting as well as plastic/ refuse/recycle bags. They will be inflated by generator-powered fans and blowers that run on a timed system that allows the pieces to “breathe” by subtly inflating and deflating. Possibly this ‘breathing’ mechanism will be manually operated, making the pieces interactive. When operational during the evening, the pieces will be lit internally so that they glow.
By Rebecca Haysom, Garfield Taylor and The Karoo Krawlers
X-Tinct Beest
After the Dutch settlement of South Africa began, the quagga was heavily hunted as it competed with domesticated animals for forage. While some individual animals were taken to zoos in Europe, breeding programs were unsuccessful. The quagga was extinct in the wild by 1878. The last captive specimen died in Amsterdam on 12 August 1883. Only one quagga was ever photographed alive and only 23 skins are preserved today.
This year we present X-tinct Beest as a tribute to the extinct quagga.
Day time it wanders across the plain in its striped pyjamas as it once did.
Night time it jumps into its party suit and dances the night away.
Walking mechanism made from PVC pipe consisting of a rectangular frame and two sets of three pairs of legs; each set synchronized in such a way that four of the twelve legs will be on the ground at any given moment.
It can be taken for walks by Burners by gently pushing it, or driven by the wind. It also makes for spectacular kinetic art by raising it off the ground on its stand and turning a crank to experience the movements of the legs while stationary.
This video more or less represents the size and number of legs of our “X-tinct Beest”, though not identical:
By Erik Eloff and The Brandnetels
Projects that have been allocated funding other than AfrikaBurn Creative Grants
Green Meany and The Flame Thrower
Luke Atkinson and Camp Anvil
!Xam (funded by Dept. Arts & Culture)
A celebration of the first human beings, who lived and survived in the Tankwa region, who were, over a period, eradicated from this land. To bring attention to their beauty and wisdom and stories, that , in a profound way, still affects the soul of the Southern African region, our homeland.
The approach is very much about trying to create a balance between an architectural form which functions on a structural (safety) level, and a form where beauty and aesthetic play an important role, all working within the dictates of the primary building material, wattle
The design/esthetics of the Temple in no way or form, attempts to symbolise or represent !Xam culture and traditions.
By Kim Goodwin
O (funded by Dept. Arts & Culture)
In the designing of this piece I have concentrated on a number of aspects that I saw lacking in previous projects that I have been involved in:
- I became aware of the beauty and tranquillity of the interiors of these previous pieces.
- They were however not designed to be accessible to the event participants. With this piece there is a lot of emphasis in the interior space and its accessibility.
- It has also become apparent that people have a need to interact with and climb on structures. The interior staircase and platform on top of the structure addresses this issue in a safe way.
- Previously there was concentrated on the work as “daytime structures”. In this design a lot of attention has been given to activating it during the night.
By Nathan Honey and SKOP (Sutherland Kuns en Ontwikkings Projek)
Target Shooting, Fire In The Sky
By Charl Bothma and Camp Anvil
Beyond the many pieces you see above, there are still many more projects coming to the dust this year – and project registrations will remain open until March 14th. This includes Artworks, Mutant Vehicles, Performance and Theme Camps.
To find project registration pages to register your project, search for ‘Registration’ in the search field at upper right of your screen.
