Do Baskets Dream of Shores or Sea is a Burning Man honorarium project coming to the Playa in 2026. 

Seven Vietnamese bamboo basket boats (thúng chài) will float amidst a sea of lanterns — a landscape of boats, light, and sound spread across the ancient seabed of Black Rock Desert. 

We are building a place people can walk into – not just look at –  and sit in that liminal space between shore and sea. A space suspended between what has been left behind and what is yet to come. 

The installation begins at a dock, drawing you in toward the first boats. From there, you step off the dock and into the sea of lanterns, where the basket boats invite you to climb in and sit among the light. As you move deeper in, the soundscape quiets: the chatter of a seaside village gives way to waves and wind, and finally to stillness at the far edge.

Inspirations

Thúng chài are the heart of the piece. For generations they carried fish and families. Now they appear in tourist photos and cultural showcases. The thing they were is not the thing they are becoming. What they are becoming hasn’t settled yet. 

When you sit inside one, you sit inside that unsettled feeling too.

The lanterns are the counterweight to the boats. Across Asia, lanterns have long been used to carry wishes, prayers, and messages — lifted into the sky, set adrift on water, or offered in remembrance of the dead. They hold a particular kind of hope: not certainty, not resolution, but light cast toward what cannot yet be seen.

Here, the boats hold what we are leaving behind, and the lanterns cast light towards what we are reaching toward. Together, they make a place that feels suspended: not quite shore, not quite sea. A place where loss and possibility share space. 

Support

If this piece speaks to you, we’d be grateful for your support!

Generous support from the Burning Man Honoraria Program has helped bring this vision within reach, but covers only about 30% of the total cost. We are hoping to raise another 20–30% through crowdfunding to help carry the project the rest of the way to the Playa.

Your donation helps bring Vietnamese basket boats, artisan-made lanterns, and this landscape of light and sound into being. It also helps sustain one of the few remaining groups of artisans still weaving thúng chài by hand, using traditional methods and materials.

More than 85% of funds raised will go directly toward:

• Vietnamese artisans and travel sponsorship
• International shipping and transport of the crafts
• Build materials
• Power, light, and sound

Visit our website to learn more: https://www.dobasketsdream.com/

For largertax-deductible donations, please contact us at dobasketsdream@gmail.com or visit our direct campaign here.