🌙 Help Bring “Spiral” — an Art Piece About Healing & Inner Reconnection — to Burning Man 2026

🌿 SHORT PREVIEW DESCRIPTION

I’m creating an art installation inspired by my struggle with mental illness and the feeling of becoming disconnected from my own inner world. The piece reimagines the nervous system as an inner axis mundi — a pillar that can collapse into despair, but can also be rebuilt through art, movement, and community. I’ve submitted a grant to Burning Man (which covers only ~30% of costs), so I’m fundraising to bring this piece to life.

🧠 MAIN STORY

✨ Introduction

Hi, I’m Helen. I’m building Spiral , an art piece about what it feels like when the inner connection between mind and body frays — and how that connection can be rebuilt through creativity, ritual, and dance.

This piece comes directly from my lived experience with mental illness: the dissociation, the collapse, and the slow, patient journey toward reconnection. Art is how I make sense of healing. And I want to share that process with others who have ever felt disconnected from themselves.

Burning Man has always been a place where inner transformation becomes a shared, communal act. Spiral is my contribution to that collective process.

🕯️ What the Art Piece Is

Spiral  is a sculptural “nervous system” rendered as a vertical inner-world pillar.

It represents:

• the fragile link between mind and body
  
  
• the collapse of that link during illness
  
  
• and the possibility of rebuilding it through movement, ritual, and community
  
  

Participants will be able to walk around the pillar, move with it, and interact through light, shadow, and gentle prompts.
The same inner axis that can symbolize despair becomes a symbol of renewal, healing, and rebirth.

It’s a visual metaphor for reclaiming yourself.

📍 Grant Status (Transparency)

I’ve submitted a Letter of Intent for the Burning Man Honoraria grant — the first step in their funding process.

If selected, the grant typically covers only about 30% of total costs.
Most artists raise the rest through community support.

I’m fundraising now because:
I’m committed to bringing this piece to the playa regardless of the grant outcome.

💸 What I’m Raising Money For

8. Budget Overview (Estimated)

Your support directly helps build and transport the installation, support the volunteer crew, and bring this vision to life.

🎁 Ways to Support

As part of this fundraiser, I’m offering a small set of intentionally “slightly overpriced” items ($50-$2000) — part fundraiser, part humor, part community ritual.

🔥 Perk: “Spiral Body Sigil” Art Series — Wear It, Hang It, Live It 🔥

Born from a photograph of me dancing at Burning Man—dust swirling, body open, mind fully in flow—I transformed that moment into a symbolic body-sigil for Spiral. This design represents the exact point where movement becomes meaning, where the body reconnects with the mind.

You can support the project by choosing one of the limited-edition versions of this artwork:

🟣 Tier 1: Spiral Body Sigil T-Shirt — $100

Wear the dance.
This soft, high-quality shirt features the sigil as a minimalist logo—clean lines, embodied motion, and a touch of playa magic. Perfect for rep sweats, gifting, or wearing during your own transformational rituals.
Limited run. Hand-packed with playa love.

🔵 Tier 2: Giant Spiral Wall Scroll — $500

Bring the Spiral home.
This large, wall scroll showcases the full body-sigil in its complete form—dynamic, abstract, and charged with the same energy that sparked the original dance.
Hang it in your studio, temple space, or anywhere you want inspiration, movement, and dust-born symbolism.

Each scroll is individually painted, signed by the artist, and blessed as part of the Spiral ritual, making every piece truly one of a kind.
Hang it in your studio, temple space, or anywhere you want movement, meaning, and playa energy to live.

🟡 $1,500 Tier: “Reorient the Axis — Dance Ritual with the Artist”

Come dance with the artist.
At this tier, you’re invited to join me at a mutually chosen public movement space — a rave, ecstatic dance, festival gathering, or flow event — where we’ll share a short but symbolic Axis Reorientation Ritual.
Together, we’ll move, breathe, and realign our inner axes, honoring the core meaning of Axis Mundi: reconnecting body, mind, and self through embodied creativity.

This is a public, community-centered moment, not a private session — a brief, meaningful ritual within a shared dance environment.

You’ll also receive:

• A signed, numbered Artist’s Edition Reconnection Plaque (laser-cut)

• A series of video updates during the build process

• A personalized thank-you message

Only 1–3 spots available.