A Malibu couple who built a giant vacuum cleaner, showcasing creativity and ingenuity, has just returned from Burning Man, the sold-out art and music festival in Nevada.
The annual gathering in the Black Rock Desert brings roughly 70,000 people together to create a temporary metropolis dedicated to community, art, self-expression and self-sustainability. On the harsh and dusty desert floor, also called ‘the playa,’ a city is built in a matter of days, a giant wooden sculpture of a man is set ablaze and, when it’s over, not a trace is left.
For this year’s 30th Burning Man, which ended Sept. 5, Gary Silverston, his wife Sunshine Armstrong-Silverston and their six-year-old daughter made the long trek to the desert with a giant vacuum cleaner art car. Silverston recalled what led him to hand build the 20-foot-tall vehicle.
“Because of the absurdity of Burning Man, I just decided that this would be really funny — to have a vacuum cleaner in one of the dustiest places on earth,” Silverston explained.
The giant vacuum was a hit along with many other art cars and installations.
“I picked this model because this is a Hoover, which was the first known manufacturer of vacuums,” Silverston told The Malibu Times. “This design is their most famous worldwide model. It was manufactured from 1952 to 1980. I thought this was the most futuristic because the space program was just beginning when this came out — that’s why it looks so futuristic.
“The response on the playa was fantastic,” he continued. “We won a couple of awards. We weren’t trying to win. It was forced on us. Burning Man is not about awards. But everybody loved it.”
The vacuum was hurriedly put together in Malibu and then flat bedded to Nevada where it was driven around the desert floor. Because Silverston is an experienced builder, he was able to design and construct the vacuum car in only three weeks using a stripped-down Honda Accord as the underlying base. The paint on the fiberglass shell was still wet when it was disassembled for the trip there.
This was Silverston’s second art car. He previously built a bigger vehicle that was a rolling nightclub that could hold 30 people and cruise the open desert. He called the vacuum a family sized art car or “mutant” vehicle, adding, “You have to go through the DMV up there … the division of mutant vehicles, to get approval for your designs.”
Burning Man may have a different meaning for everyone who’s lucky enough to snag a ticket before it sells out — which it does every year in a matter of minutes.
“After 10 years I really think that there’s no way to describe it,” Silverston said.
“They’ve made movies about it, books, but you actually have to spend a week there. Some people just come in for the last couple of days and they absolutely miss the entire experience. The experience is about working together to build a city and camaraderie and family and contribution,” Silverston continued. “For us, it’s about giving. There’s no commercial Americana allowed there. You’re only allowed to buy ice. It’s all about people sharing and giving. You could walk into any camp and you are welcomed. There’s no judgment there. For one week we get to be the best humans we can be.”
Armstrong-Silverston added, “Burning Man is about what happens when everyone has enough. So everyone comes together to this empty place where there’s nothing in the desert for 10 days and they bring enough — enough to share with other people. It’s about sharing. You come willing to share and really not needing. So when you do need something, somebody else is going to give it to you.
“So you go with whatever you have to contribute, which for us was a vacuum cleaner, to clean up the desert, and someone else comes to contribute hotdogs and another person comes to contribute their music. It’s all about love.”
Burning Man is such a loving place for the Silverstons that they actually got married on the playa nine years ago, before a legal ceremony a year later.
Armstrong-Silverston, who operates Under The Oaks Early Childhood Center in Malibu, said her daughter wants her family to build an art car for next year, shaped like a Persian Aladdin-style shoe.
No matter the vehicle, Silverston said, the real beauty comes from the community.
“I wish people wouldn’t judge something just based upon pictures and without going and participating in the event and seeing humankind working together,” Silverston said. “It’s a beautiful thing.”
