At the center of this installation, a wider and taller tree holds a large anatomical heart, glowing alternately from red to blue, nestled its branches. The center tree is a listening tree, whose trunk provides a cozy cushioned space to climb into; Large colorful banners extend from this center tree and connect with the outer trees. Different Bay Area community groups painted each banner with expressions of the colors and themes relating to the chakras. The banners unite the installation and form a sheltered and inspiring grove.
Each individual tree has markers and a basket of fabric ribbons in colors of its corresponding chakra, to write personal expressions onto and tie to the branches of the trees, like leaves bringing the installation to life and into full bloom.
More about the project below.
Our installation harmonizes with other tree-themed art this year, contributing to the experience of a spreading forest on the playa. In addition, Living Pulse brings an abundance of opportunities for artistic and participatory interaction and cooperation, including:
- A sacred space for people to interact, contribute, rest and play both day and night.
- A means for people to hear and create live acoustic music in union with other participants on the playa.
- A space that has many conceptual and spiritual layers to discover and explore.
- A means to expand the Burning Man community.
Living Pulse will bring people together in a beautiful and vibrant setting for a wide variety of performances, workshops, and ceremonies.
Using mainly recycled materials, this installation is a vehicle to experience creative community with ourselves, each other, and with nature. This installation will interact widely with communities in the Bay Area, will offer a sacred interactive space at Burning Man 2007, and hopes to be an inspiration for like projects worldwide.
Each tree is instrumented with a different genre of instruments played by friends and strangers coming together to create something greater than any one person could create individually. The tree at the center, surrounded by the other trees, refers to how each of us is surrounded by communities that we may have little relationship to. Connecting the banners and the heartstrings between the trees illustrates our interconnection, and the possibility of creating relationships between us that meet at the center. The heart tree is a listening tree – a place to listen to the outer trees, to one another, and to our own hearts – and communicates that listening actively and newly is what is at the heart of love, relatedness, and community. The Living Pulse installation is an opportunity to experiment with uniting the various distinct aspects of life into an integrated whole, and invokes the power of every human being to generate synergy out of the contrasting elements of our lives and environments.
