Penis Car, M & J Porter

Talk to God, Brad Templeton

Advice (artist unknown)

affectionately called ‘The Penis Car,’ was complete with jutting pipe cleaner pubic hair, shooting-star ejaculation and a lighting system that made the engorged member and its ejaculation glow at night.

 “Having an art car is not without its dangers,” they told me.  Mark was cruising the Playa one night without his wife.  It was the first and last time he went out unaccompanied as he was surrounded by a people jam of penis-adoring men that assumed Mark shared their phallic idolatry.

There are no “Do not touch” signs here. Participation is the main stay of BM.  The “Talk-to-God” phone booth was one of my favorites.  I picked up the old, heavy rotary dial handset, put my index finger in 3, rotated the dial, and watched it slowly roll back to start, a dial tone buzzed in my ear and it was distant and crackly. Seconds later, God answered.  We spoke.

There was an advice booth that was simply two chairs and a sign that read ‘ADVICE’ that invited your participation.  Emily’s Locker, a set of three school lockers set on the edge of the playa was a trip back to school complete with the cultural icons,  and image worries that I was consumed with as a teen.  White Noise was an eerie house with a white picket fence, white tree and mailbox. 

The lack of context and empty space bring these installations a power to change perception.  

Have you ever seen the bumper sticker that asks you to “Question reality?”  The world we live in is a fabricated reality.  Burning Man was an opportunity to be alive and well in a completely alternative reality, where anything goes, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone.  Being there stretched my mind, expanded possibilities, and altered perceptions.

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