My Body, My Home

My Body, My Home was a catharsis project focused on body trauma, that burned on August 31 at midnight at Burning Man 2023. She was a partial wooden coyote skeleton named Louisa, modeled after an actual coyote skeleton that I 3D scanned at the UNR Delamare Makerspace.

The sculpture was meant to offer a space for everyone who encounters it to release their own trauma. On playa, there was be a box of with a laser engraved statement on it, explaining the purpose of the piece and inviting people to write or draw their own traumas into notebooks inside the box or leave other offerings, to be released when the piece burns. The sculpture was meant to be a create a space for participants to be able to express their traumas and a way to both physically and metaphorically leave them behind. It was also meant to be a place where people can read other people's messages and know that they aren't alone in their struggles and the process of healing.

The title of this piece was selected from the idea C.S. Lewis put forth that ‘you have a body, you are a soul’ as well as the poem “On Being a Coyote” by Laura Anne Whitley; both reflect the idea that everyone is more than the body they inhabit, but that the body is how we experience the world.

photo above by Mark Fromson