Shiny. Mysterious. Intriguing. Those are a few words to describe the nautical, foil-covered piece of artwork that was constructed in Sam Boyer’s driveway up in Las Flores Canyon. The pirate ship float is the brainchild of Boyer and several other local self-expression enthusiasts. They plan to exhibit their “art car” at the Burning Man festival in the Black Rock Desert Aug. 26.
The Burning Man festival is an annual gathering about 120 miles north of Reno, Nevada that was created in 1986 by Larry Harvey. The event has grown from a small beachside party in San Francisco to a weeklong Woodstock-style event that attracts more than 25,000 people each year.
The goal of attending the festival is to spend six days in an experimental community surviving the elements in a drie up riverbed called the “playa.” Each attendee is responsible for his or her own well-being and physical survival. All the while, participants express their individuality through costumes, performances and pre-prepared artwork like Boyer’s “Ship of Foils.” According to the event’s Web site, “Burning Man is an annual experiment in temporary community dedicated to radical self-expression and radical self-reliance.”
The eight Malibu residents constructing the “Ship of Foils” for this year’s Burning Man festival are regular event attendees. Sam Boyer, Yvonne Delarosa-Green, Stefano Novelli, Tony Witt, Scott Altamare, Toby Smith, “Kim,” and Chris Witt went to the festival last year and conceived their “art car” idea on the way home. They started working on a model right away. When the theme for this year’s festival, “The Floating World,” was announced, Delarosa-Green said it was kismet.
Most of the people working on the pirate ship have experience in the film industry. Novelli works in special effects and designed the 30-foot by 30-foot structure. Underneath the wood and foil exterior is an old Ford van that Boyer bought for $300. The entire project has cost around $3,000 to construct. Most of the parts were donated or salvaged-another trademark of Burning Man artwork.
In the past, Burning Man artistic expressions have included body painting, a 30-foot-tall tree of actual cattle bones and a fire/waterfall from which attendees could scoop up a burning handful of water. On the Saturday before Labor Day, the traditional 40-foot tall Burning Man effigy will go up in flames. The burn will be webcast on www.burningman.com.
The Ship of Foils group will take the float apart piece by piece to tow it to the festival.
Delarosa-Green and Boyer said they plan to reconstruct the ship after they return home and convert it into a haunted house.