The One Tree

The One Tree (Fig. 13) was the manifestation of my dream to re-create the first commissioned artwork of my career, accomplished 5 years earlier, as a life-sized monumental work. I built the piece as an exploration of an aspect of my philosophy based on the development of organic plant-based themes as functioning interactive objects and as a gift to the people who are part of a family that changed me forever. The sculpture was essentially a 25-ft-tall oak tree built entirely of recycled copper pipe. Functioning as a fire-and-water fountain, it was placed in a central location of Burning Man 1998: the Keyhole, the entrance to the promenade that led straight to the Burning Man sculpture. The One Tree sat above a 3,000-gallon pool of water covered by a wooden grate so that participants could stand beneath the falling water by day and dance by evening around its fire-lit branches. The One Tree became a sort of social watering hole and gathering place where people could cool off, read a book or socialize.

The One Tree used a large solar-powered pump to re-circulate water. Hundreds of revelers would gather under the cooling water as it dripped from the branches while many more lay beneath it. People approached me and told me of the powerful emotions they felt as they contemplated the meaning of the piece. Each person seemed to have such a different response. I quickly learned that an art piece of this scale was truly the result of much more than its physical composition. Instead, it was the group experience that actually made the work exist. More than once I saw someone actually crying while they gazed upon the scene.

At night The One Tree took on a totally different aesthetic as its branches sprouted fire, a signaling torch to gather people for its warmth and emotional comfort. To create its flames, I used propane fuel pumped through the branches, resulting in nine 12-inch fires throughout the structure. Each night I attached three 25-gallon propane tanks and let them run out. I had two sets of tanks and would refill the spare set each day. The fuel usually lasted for 12 hours, until the early morning of the following day. Those who experienced the tree seemed deeply touched by this piece. Strangely, I never really thought it would cause such a vast emotional response. I just wanted to build it, and, magically, people came.

In the end, The One Tree was destroyed by a storm 2 weeks after the event. I felt a certain sense of completion. The piece was built in Black Rock City, a temporal experience, as was the art we built for it. In truth, our memories and achievements are the important mementos we bring home from our time in the Black Rock desert. The One Tree will live on for many as part of a permanent change in their philosophical and material-life experience. This is why I make art.

Fig. 13.

Dan Das Mann, The One Tree, interactive sculpture of recycled copper pipe, fire, 1998. (left) In the daytime. (right) At night.

(© Dan Das Mann. Photos © Gabe Kirchheimer.)