Nora Atkinson: Why art thrives at Burning Man
Nora Atkinson is a craft curator, a humanist and a romantic -- as she says, "I can’t believe I get to do what I do for a living." Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
ringed in skeletons,
a series of heavy ropes at its base,
where a team is waiting,
and the audience cheers,
Peter Hudson's "Charon,"
from marketable art.
and it doesn't go with the sofa.
and completely useless,
in the art-world headlines.
and selling of artwork
than the works themselves.
sold for 110 million dollars,
for the work of an American artist,
sold for 450 million,
and you look at the headlines,
because they move me,
because they're expensive
to separate those two things.
between the artist and the audience,
the artists themselves?
from the galleries of New York
30 years, at Burning Man,
that does exactly that.
Burning Man has grown up.
in collective dreaming.
and every August, for a single week,
and pilgrimage out into the desert
of their everyday lives.
it was better the last,
and freeing and alive,
that thrives here.
on the desert playa last year
of Burning Man for several years,
at the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery,
isn't the quality of the work here,
into the desert again and again
in our increasingly digital age.
to something that's essentially human.
encampment of Burning Man
interactive art installation
of everyone in it.
from the commercial art world
and countless artistic gestures
if the works aren't burned,
back out and store them.
a Burning Man aesthetic,
Kate Raudenbush and Michael Christian,
character of the work here
to make the journey,
the wind and weather and participants,
and intimate works here feel surreal.
could get lost on the playa,
as big as they can build.
it took to bring them here.
comes out in pieces
on a wooden beam, like a mousetrap,
to find religion --
like Christopher Schardt's "Firmament,"
set to classical music,
the thumping rave beats
with mutant vehicles,
is the mother of invention,
public transportation system,
about critics and collectors
of marvelous toys they create.
when people first come to Burning Man,
maker community there
come together to share skills
a single artist would never even attempt,
ready to take off at any moment
full of artist-made books,
and the innovation of the work here
aren't artists at all,
disciplinary boundaries,
out of the design for a yurt
to the voices and biorhythms
embedded in its leaves.
less than 30 seconds with a work of art,
from label to label,
of a work of art
in that one 80-word text.
there are no gatekeepers
just natural curiosity.
and you ride towards it.
Will I be impaled by it?
for extended interaction,
might be short-lived,
than at the Temple.
built the first Temple,
was killed tragically in an accident
piece of architecture,
until it disappears
universal of human experiences,
is overpowering and indescribable,
on the last night of the event.
from all different walks of life,
in a way we rarely see anywhere else.
capable of great feats of imagination,
cathedrals in the dust.
world if not this?
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Nora Atkinson - Craft curatorNora Atkinson is a craft curator, a humanist and a romantic -- as she says, "I can’t believe I get to do what I do for a living."
Why you should listen
Nora Atkinson is the Lloyd Herman Curator of Craft Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum Washington, D.C. As she writes, "I was born and raised in the Northwest, and I find my perspective heavily influenced by its laid-back, pioneering spirit. After earning my MA from the University of Washington, I intended to curate art, but fell into the unusual specialty of craft, which appeals to me as a way of living differently in the modern world that tells us something about being human; I continue to be fascinated by the place of the handmade in our increasingly digital age.
"In 2014, after eight years at Bellevue Arts Museum, I moved to DC to join the Renwick Gallery. I attended my first Burning Man in 2017 as research for my exhibition 'No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man,' which explores the event as a creative laboratory and one of the most important cultural movements of our time. As a curator, I tell stories through objects, and I want to teach people to approach the world with curious eyes and find the magic around them. My work is as much about inspiring people as transmitting knowledge."
Nora Atkinson | Speaker | TED.com