About the Installation
Womantree is a large-scale art installation first created for
Burning Man 2014 by artist and sculptor Valerie Mallory and
illustrator and concept designer Mikell Haynes. During its first
premiere at Burning Man in 2014, it was the subject of an iconic
photo series by Scott London and featured in his book, "Burning Man: Art on Fire."
Since then, Womantree has been exhibited at events in Utah,
Sacramento, and San Francisco. In 2024, it returned to Burning Man
for its 10-year anniversary as an Honorarium Art Grant Selection with its own garden and entry portal.
For additional information, please visit: womantree.art.
- Lead Artist
- Valerie Mallory
- Concept Art & Design
- Mikell Haynes
- Structural Engineering
- Rick Damiani
- Lighting
- Dusty Williams
- Lead Builder
- David Meakin
Philosophy
Womantree explores themes of unity, resilience, and
intergenerational connection in the stories of women.
The stories are about birth, growing up, childbearing and dying. The
stories tell about one's mother, and mothers' mother. The tree
reflects the wisdom, nurturing, and care of countless generations of
women with the burdens and miseries they bore. The tales of the tree
are poignant and wondrous, yet full of terrors as well.
As the tree grows, it twists, sprouts, drops roots while part of it
simultaneously dies. It pushes through rocks to find grounding and
aims doggedly toward sunlight. Clearly, this is the struggle of all
living things. This reflects a broader connection to all ecology and
life.
“One must grow where one's planted.” Through Womantree, we see a
reflection of our own process of being in this world.
Figures of Womanhood
The figures that inhabit Womantree evoke the varied experiences of
womanhood throughout the cycle of life. Some are curious and full of
wonder. Some are weathered and wise. Some reach out for help. Others
embrace and hold each other up.
The interplay of figures tell their own stories. The asymmetric,
organic growth of the tree parallels the crooked journey through
life, birth, growth and death.
