Stained glass 'Space Whale' to blow minds at Burning Man

There is perhaps no less fitting a place for a whale than a desert.

Unless, of course, it is Burning Man.

A Reno-based art collective, the Pier Group, already is laying the groundwork for what could be the biggest talker of Burning Man 2016, the “Space Whale.” The "Space Whale" is a 50-foot tall stained glass, full-scale humpback whale sculpture that will be accompanied by a stained glass whale calf at its flank.

The two whales will appear with their tail fins in the air, the sky their ocean, and the desert their ocean floor -- fitting considering that the Black Rock Desert playa 9,000 years ago was underwater as Lake Lahontan.

The group hopes that the juxtaposition of the whales and the desert will spur conversation about climate change, energy alternatives and sustainability.

“Whales, along with chimps, elephants and octopuses, are part of a small set of animals that really compel humans to dig deeper and challenge our own ideas of intellect and society,” said Matt Schultz, the lead artist for the project, in an email this week sent from Australia. Schultz and several other members of the Pier Group currently are working on a separate project for Strawberry Fields music festival in Australia.

During Burning Man, an annual arts gathering at the end of August held in the Black Rock Desert since 1990, the Pier Group plans to coordinate a full experience to be had with the whales, including light shows that will illuminate the whales, whale songs that will play at the same frequency and decibel level as would be heard in the ocean and also physics lectures from field experts about space, time and matter.

Although the “Space Whale” will weigh less than half of what an actual humpback whale weighs, the more than 1,800 glass panels and steel backing will still weigh about 30,000 pounds. It will be built to withstand 110 miles per hour sustained winds and also the force of objects thrown at it.

Because Burning Man is a gathering that celebrates the arts and free expression, the artists are hoping that no one will try to shatter any of the "beautiful, age old materials" used for the whales, Schultz said.

The entire project is expected to cost about $125,000, and the Pier Group needs about $50,000 for up-front costs. The group currently has about $16,000 raised. They expect to start work in January.

Diving in

The Pier Group previously has created some of the most revered large-scale installations during recent years at Burning Man, which draws more than 80,000 people from all over the world to the open playa.

Schultz, who first imagined a whale at Burning Man seven years ago, said that a trip to the Philippines in 2008 greatly influenced his vision of the “Space Whale.” While traveling, he was able to snorkel just six feet away from whale sharks, an experience that altered his perspective.

“Staring into the eye of a fish the size of a bus does something to you. Your sense of self shifts and in that shift everything seemed to make sense in that instant. The scale of life, the scale of the stars, and the scale of atoms was all easily relatable. From bacteria, to ant, to cat, to human, to whale, I could envision the earth in relation to the sun. It created an analogous scale, one that could easily be shared,” Schultz said.

For Schultz, who had grown up flipping through National Geographic magazines in search of pictures of whales but had a terrifying phobia of deep water – so much so that he did not like to even touch the pages with pictures of the ocean – swimming alongside a whale shark transformed him.

“I remember my first night at Burning Man in 2008, looking around and feeling as if I was at the bottom of a giant glowing sea. It was incredible and I thought, ‘Wow. Wouldn’t it be amazing if someone created a giant whale diving down from the top of the stratosphere to say hello?’” Schultz said.

Out of this world

Schultz, who also designed the Embrace sculpture of Burning Man 2014 as well as both Pier installations from earlier Burns, is also the executive director of the Generator, a 34,000 square-foot Sparks-based maker space where the whales will be constructed.

The Pier Group, made of between 50 and 100 volunteers, is pairing with digital layering artist Android Jones, who also is a veteran Burner. In the past, he has worked on art cars and camps at Burning Man, but never a stained glass whale, he laughed.

"I swear, I have not done this before," Jones said, chuckling, from his home in Lyons, Colo. this week.

Jones, whose work has been projected on the Sydney Opera House and has been commissioned by the royal family of Abu Dhabi, will be designing each of the stained glass panels. His work also was featured at the Reno Sculpture Fest in May.

After working for Nintendo and George Lucas’ special effects company, Jones now works as an independent artist and collages geometric patterns to create kaleidoscopic-like images. He will design each one of the Tiffany stained glass panels, which will altogether be comprised of more than 80,000 individual pieces of glass.

Altogether the images are to relay a message of “Love our world, preserve the planet, and build a path to the stars,” according to Schultz. The stained glass on the whale will tell the story of life and matter evolving "from the big bang, through the seas of time into primordial life and up through the tree of life, time and conscience into deep space and on to an unknown future,” Schultz said.

“Stained glass is traditionally used to communicate religious ideas. It is a beautiful art form meant to inspire awe in God. We plan to work with the medium to inspire people to move towards a balance with nature while we dream of a future in the stars,” Schultz said.

Jones, who lives in Lyons, Colo., does not yet know exactly what he will design for all of the panels until the images come to him, although most of them will speak to stars, planets, and other out-of-this-world elements. He will be visiting the Reno-Sparks area throughout next year to work on the “Space Whale” with the Pier Group.

“The success or failure of Burning Man now is the giving of something amazing. It’s a huge rush to do that. This is going to challenge us to go deep. This is why we do these unreasonable things with the limited life span that we all have,” Jones said from his home in Colorado on Sunday.

Jones, whose work is frequently translated into tapestries or is projected onto outside spaces, is especially excited to see how light will interact with this piece.

“In the making of any piece of art, light is a pretty fundamental element to consider. The colors, the shadows it throws,” Jones said. “On the playa, though, there are no shadows to worry about, and the horizon is pretty clear. I want to design a concept to align with sunrise and sunset. It’s really about creating an experience.”

Although it is expected to be an ambitious undertaking, the past experience of the Pier Group -- working on Embrace and both Piers -- puts the artist group at an advantage.

“This piece is really meant to be a collision of art, science and engineering. I think big change will come if we can inspire great minds to leave the boundaries of their careers and think in a broader spectrum,” Schultz said.

To learn more about the “Space Whale” or to contribute to the project, visit the Generator’s website.