At Burning Man festival, the non-profit organization Ukrainian Witness has unveiled a new sculpture titled I’m Fine (2024), crafted from war-damaged materials from Ukraine. The artwork, co-created by Ukrainian artist Oleksiy Sai, DJ Anatoly Tapolsky, and former Deputy Defense Minister of Ukraine Vitaliy Deynega, is on display during the annual event, which runs from August 25th to September 2nd.
Constructed from debris collected from various parts of Ukraine, the sculpture stands 32 meters in length and 7 meters tall. It is made up of street signs, fences, and gates, all punctured by bullet holes and damaged by shrapnel, spelling out the phrase “I’m Fine.” Sai installed the artwork at Burning Man with a team of 25 volunteers, many of whom are fighting the war on the frontlines.
This design reflects the ironic “This is Fine” meme, in which a dog apparently smiles while the room around him is engulfed in flames. According to the artists, the work symbolizes the dual realities of normalcy and ongoing conflict experienced by Ukrainians. The artwork is intended to represent the physical destruction caused by the war as well as the resilience of Ukranians. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, over 2,024 cultural institutions in Ukraine have been impacted by fighting, with 334 completely destroyed, a sign of the extensive cultural losses suffered.
“The sculpture is real, and so is the war. I want audiences to feel closer to the people of Ukraine that have been impacted and to understand that we are fighting for our culture and our identity,” said Sai. “By standing next to the sculpture and physically touching the damaged materials, the bullet holes, the debris, festival-goers will be able to feel the scale and impact of war—our reality.”
DJ Tapolsky—who is a frontline soldier—will perform a set at the festival in front of the sculpture on August 28th. His performance will incorporate recordings of Ukrainian people responding to the question, “How are you?”
While Burning Man is known for its left-field community and all-night parties, the festival has long played host to art installations of all kinds. Indeed, some previous works from the festival were on view in the exhibition “No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 2019. Other installations for 2024, under the theme “Curiouser and Curiouser,” include a 26-foot-tall steel mushroom that looks like an inflatable and a 50-foot-tall orange traffic cone that will release fireworks.
