The Fire Hummingbird at Burning Man

Collaborative art installation created by Adrián Arias for Burning Man 2025, selected as an Honoraria Project. Inspired by ancestral traditions and Día de los Muertos, the pyramid structure with luminous hummingbird created an intimate gathering space where people sang, shared stories, and connected with ancestors and loved ones no longer with us.

I served as collaborating artist from August 21-28, contributing to construction in Oakland, transportation to Black Rock City, on-playa installation, and photographic documentation. The hummingbird—messenger between life and death in Indigenous traditions—held space for ritual and remembrance. Anaís Azul performed live charango music inside the structure, guiding participants into meditation as they wrote messages to loved ones. These messages were collected in an urn and later added to the temple burn, carrying words to ancestors through fire and smoke.

The project brought together construction, performance, ritual, and documentation as collective practice—building and tending space for grief, memory, and connection.