🐟️ Do Baskets Dream of Flying Fish? 🐟️ debuts
at Burning Man 2026, carrying stories across oceans, deserts, and
time.
For the first time, thirteen Vietnamese
handwoven bamboo basket boats (thúng chài), will
make a 7600 mile voyage from Vietnam to Black Rock
Desert, to become emissaries of memory, meaning and a world
slowly forgotten.
Website: https://www.dobasketsdream.com/
🌍️ Remembering Through Our Ancestors
The thúng chài is one of the oldest maritime ancestral
technology in South East Asia. It is humbly hand-woven from
bamboo that grows in abundance, naturally resilient to water and was
born out a cosmology that venerates harmony between and and sea.
We hope that this 1000 years old ancestral craft will become a
symbol of what we risk leaving behind when we move into the
future. Its surreal presence that contrasts majority of
playa art which imagines the future, creates a quiet act of
sovereignty:
we are also part of the future that is coming.
Our aesthetics, our values, our civilisational wisdom are not
just nostalgia for heritage preservation
, but a shining example of how the world can become a rich
melting pot of different cultures, ideologies and realities.
🌊 The Tide of Time Is Suspended, Momentarily
The installation evokes a surreal, between-world voyage across the desert. Slow, breathing, oceanic light and sound draw burners into its dream while upon a closer look reveals pieces of an untold tale. By day, the boats burst with color from brushstrokes and traditional motifs. By night, soft "liquid light" in shades of blue ripples gently around them, revealing the beauty of woven bamboo through shadow.
Threaded between the boats, a constellation of bamboo fish rises on poles from 2 to 8 feet, raising the question: are they swimming, or are they flying?
Walking amongst the boats and fish, seascapes echo in the air and at moments the trembling song of a whale can be felt beneath one's feet. One slowly enters a dream of remembering and forgetting. A contemplative, liminal portal is thus created. Where the tide of time stands still long enough so that...
📼 the past can be given its proper space
🔮 the future can wait and not be rushed
🎁 the present can host stories & memories we only keep to ourselves
🗺️ A diasporic pilgrimage of sea and dust
The thúng chài whispers a quiet invitation: help us remember what was scattered. Will you be the one brave enough to weave its tale? To scavenge across the city and deep playa to help remember the lost tale?
At the heart of it stands the Codex on the dock, a book inscribing both tale and puzzle. Each boat holds a memory fragment and the story deepens as tactile artefacts are discovered: a child's doll, a rice drum, a lost medallion, a basket of shifting sandworms, a whale bone, a water deity altar...
This installation wishes to echo the journey taken by all diasporas who came to the U.S., seeking a new world where lifeline and meaning might survive. We honour the stories of dispersal, exile, suppression and separation that have been left unsaid.
✨️Artist Personal Note
Do Baskets Dream of Flying Fish? carries with it the tide of time and inevitability of change. Growing up in Malaysia and spending a decade in Vietnam as my second home, I've come to witness ancient ways and traditions become relics of a past, unable to carry their meaning forward.
This echoes deeply for me, as I grief every disappearing language and ancestral practice. This piece is my way of asking: how do we move forward without leaving our ancestors behind?
The question feels more urgent than ever before. Collectively as a species, we are on the verge of becoming ancestors ourselves. Not too far from now, we may be succeeded by another intelligence that will be unlike any of us. What we choose to carry forward now may shape how we are remembered, interpreted, or erased.
My wish is that, by presenting thirteen ancestors from a world that remembers, their presence will act like tender wombs (circular, woven) for us - holding us deeper as we ourselves hold the question and our collective suffering.
🧧🧧🧧Become a Keeper! 🧧🧧🧧
Our work is completely volunteer-based. Yet money gives LIFE to this
project. 🌱
By contributing financially to this campaign, you
will be helping us steward a thousand-year-old craft from a less known
world, so that it can be shared lovingly to many others. You will be
helping us connect worlds that has never met before, and would
probably never 🙏
>85% of your donation will be going towards:
🇻🇳 Vietnamese artisans and their travel sponsorship
🚢 International shipping of the crafts
🏗️ Build materials
🔆 Power, light and sound
A SMALL NOTE ABOUT PERKS
We are still in the middle of finalising the designs and
items that will help us express our gratitude for your support.
Since majority of these perks will come from Vietnamese
artisans/artist, we hope for your understanding if we are unable
to give you exactly details yet.
TAX-DEDUCTIBLE
For larger tax-deductible donations, please contact dobasketsdream@gmail.com or visit our direct
campaign (soon to be launched). Meanwhile you may make a donation
pledge on this
form so that we will be able to make a good estimation of our
campaign status.
With much gratitude and warmth,
The Keepers Team 🐟️🐟️
Perks
Why 28?
In Vietnam, the 28th day leading up to Tết (lunar new year) are
about preparation: cleaning, tending, and getting ready to welcome
what’s next. This tier is for those who help prepare the ground.
You will receive a lovingly illustrated sticker
commemorating the art piece!
Your $28 helps seed the project at its earliest stage, turning small acts of care into collective momentum. In return, you carry a piece of the story with you: light, playful, and full of heart.
Because sometimes, the smallest offerings hold the most meaning. 🌊🧂
*Visual is conceptual and not
the final product*
A rugged canvas tote for market runs, beach days, studio chaos, and carrying the weight of your ancestors (or just snacks). Durable, practical, and unapologetically seaworthy.
Salt in the blood. Craft in the hands.
Scattered, never
lost.
(Pssstttt.....does it come in white or black? We are
undecided yet. Maybe you can tell us your preference!)
*Visual is conceptual and not
the final product*
We grant you a blessing of abundance from the temples of UNESCO
Heritage Site, Hoi An. A papercut will be signed, sealed and delivered
from Vietnam to you, together with a specially blended incense that
captures the soul of Vietnam.
We seek brave souls to carry the honorary title: Keepers of the Tales.
As an insignia of this role, you will be entrusted with the 📿 Lost Medallion for safekeeping, worn and called upon during our opening ceremony.
Designed by Linh Trinh and hand-carved from wood by artisans in Hoi An, its symbol holds the key to the unravelling of the forgotten story at the heart of this piece.
📿 Wear it as you stand before the artwork at the Burn.
It may whisper its secrets to you.
We seek tide and time benders to carry the honorary title: Keepers of the Tide.
Offered by HuiWoon, Lead Artist of the project, this role honors those who tend rhythm, return, and renewal.
As an insignia, you will be entrusted with a 💍 ring, handcrafted in Hoi An, Vietnam by skilled artisans. Cast in sterling silver and set with a sea-born stone, it marks continuity rather than possession.
There are rings.
Not to rule them all, but to be called upon 💍
to tend to the dust and sea during our opening and blessing ceremony.
In the spirit of
Uncle Iroh:
Tea first. Burning Man later.
As an honorary member of the White Lotus Clan, you are invited into an intimate, off-playa gathering hosted by HuiWoon, Lead Artist of the project. This is not a public event, but a closed-door meeting—small, intentional, and grounded in presence.
You will join a select circle for a guided tea ceremony led by HuiWoon, drawing from lotus tea traditions and her apprenticeship with Vietnamese tea master Nguyễn Việt Hùng, winner of the Tea Master Cup. Together, we will taste teas from the indigenous highlands, farms of central Vietnam, and the lotus traditions preserved in the royal city of Huế.
🍃 What this includes
-
Invitation to a White Lotus Clan gathering (small, private circle)
-
A hosted tea ceremony led by HuiWoon
-
Shared reflection on the philosophy, lineage, and deeper currents behind the artwork
-
A moment of stillness amid the noise
-
Commemorative Vietnamese lotus tea to bring home with you
This is not just a perk.
It is a seat at the table where
meaning and wisdom are tended.
A rare chance to be part of BM art creation, by contributing your
ideas, stories and memories towards one of the boat’s theme! We will
help manifest it in light, sound, vibrant brushstrokes etc.
Join us, up close and personal, as we breathe LIVE into art. 🌬️
Highlights
See all activity19Activity
Why 28?
In Vietnam, the 28th day leading up to Tết (lunar new year) are
about preparation: cleaning, tending, and getting ready to welcome
what’s next. This tier is for those who help prepare the ground.
You will receive a lovingly illustrated sticker
commemorating the art piece!
Your $28 helps seed the project at its earliest stage, turning small acts of care into collective momentum. In return, you carry a piece of the story with you: light, playful, and full of heart.
Because sometimes, the smallest offerings hold the most meaning. 🌊🧂
*Visual is conceptual and not
the final product*
A rugged canvas tote for market runs, beach days, studio chaos, and carrying the weight of your ancestors (or just snacks). Durable, practical, and unapologetically seaworthy.
Salt in the blood. Craft in the hands.
Scattered, never
lost.
(Pssstttt.....does it come in white or black? We are
undecided yet. Maybe you can tell us your preference!)
*Visual is conceptual and not
the final product*
We grant you a blessing of abundance from the temples of UNESCO
Heritage Site, Hoi An. A papercut will be signed, sealed and delivered
from Vietnam to you, together with a specially blended incense that
captures the soul of Vietnam.
We seek brave souls to carry the honorary title: Keepers of the Tales.
As an insignia of this role, you will be entrusted with the 📿 Lost Medallion for safekeeping, worn and called upon during our opening ceremony.
Designed by Linh Trinh and hand-carved from wood by artisans in Hoi An, its symbol holds the key to the unravelling of the forgotten story at the heart of this piece.
📿 Wear it as you stand before the artwork at the Burn.
It may whisper its secrets to you.
We seek tide and time benders to carry the honorary title: Keepers of the Tide.
Offered by HuiWoon, Lead Artist of the project, this role honors those who tend rhythm, return, and renewal.
As an insignia, you will be entrusted with a 💍 ring, handcrafted in Hoi An, Vietnam by skilled artisans. Cast in sterling silver and set with a sea-born stone, it marks continuity rather than possession.
There are rings.
Not to rule them all, but to be called upon 💍
to tend to the dust and sea during our opening and blessing ceremony.
In the spirit of
Uncle Iroh:
Tea first. Burning Man later.
As an honorary member of the White Lotus Clan, you are invited into an intimate, off-playa gathering hosted by HuiWoon, Lead Artist of the project. This is not a public event, but a closed-door meeting—small, intentional, and grounded in presence.
You will join a select circle for a guided tea ceremony led by HuiWoon, drawing from lotus tea traditions and her apprenticeship with Vietnamese tea master Nguyễn Việt Hùng, winner of the Tea Master Cup. Together, we will taste teas from the indigenous highlands, farms of central Vietnam, and the lotus traditions preserved in the royal city of Huế.
🍃 What this includes
-
Invitation to a White Lotus Clan gathering (small, private circle)
-
A hosted tea ceremony led by HuiWoon
-
Shared reflection on the philosophy, lineage, and deeper currents behind the artwork
-
A moment of stillness amid the noise
-
Commemorative Vietnamese lotus tea to bring home with you
This is not just a perk.
It is a seat at the table where
meaning and wisdom are tended.
A rare chance to be part of BM art creation, by contributing your
ideas, stories and memories towards one of the boat’s theme! We will
help manifest it in light, sound, vibrant brushstrokes etc.
Join us, up close and personal, as we breathe LIVE into art. 🌬️
