Charlie “Blackcat” Smith is a longtime Atlanta sculptor known for his large-scale fire and metal art. These days, he’s racing against a tight deadline inside his West End warehouse, working roughly up to 16-hour-days to finish “The Burning Book of Brian,” a 14- to 15-foot memorial sculpture. The piece is due in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert at the end of the month, for Burning Man, the annual, weeklong creative festival.
The piece honors Brian Doherty, a Reason magazine senior editor whose 2004 book, “This Is Burning Man: The Rise of a New American Underground,” chronicled the festival’s culture. Doherty died March 13 of this year.
A friendship built in the desert
Smith and Doherty’s bond traces back to Burning Man 2000, when that year’s theme was “The Body.” Smith built a 20-foot sculpture called “Hearth” with fellow artist Sidney Klinge.
“We first met around Hearth, but the real bonding moment came during a tense situation when I helped stop someone from burning another art installation,” Smith said. “It was an intense situation that ultimately began our lifelong friendship.”
The friendship lasted more than two decades. In fact, Doherty rededicated a copy of “This Is Burning Man” weeks before he died.
The heart of a sculpture
“The Burning Book of Brian” reimagines that shared history as a stylized metal book, its pages pierced by a large human heart meant to pulse with fire. Some of its pieces are repurposed parts of “Hearth” reworked alongside new metal fabricated specifically for this piece.
“The sculpture is a book pierced by a heart,” Smith said. “For me, that image holds who Brian was: a writer with a huge, huge, open heart. It also connects back to our shared history around Hearth and the emotional core of our friendship.”
Smith calls his broader approach to art “Contraptionism,” a term he coined for building new work out of reused materials.
“This piece is very much a contraption in my world because it’s not just a static object,” he said. “It cooks, it burns, it gathers people, it absorbs emotion, and it projects that shared energy back out into the community.”
More than 45 collaborators joined the build, Smith said, including muralist Bunnie Reiss, who built the sculpture’s mosaic base; fabricator Jeff Morgan; and Rosy Schechter, who is weaving short text contributions from more than 30 people into poetic panels on the piece.
“I’m working roughly 12 to 16 hours a day, starting around 3 or 4 in the morning and going until about 8 at night,” Smith said. “A lot of people are helping bring it together under a very tight timeline.”
So, far “The Burning Book” Crowdfunder campaign has raised more than $20,000 toward a $25,000 goal for the sculpture’s most immediate build costs. A total of $69,000 is needed to complete the project. The campaign is set to close Aug. 17.
A ritual for grief
“The Burning Book of Brian” will be lit the Wednesday of Burning Man week, after the Cacophony Society’s annual cocktail party. Its heart will be lit first by propane, then switched to wood-fed flames meant to burn until sunrise, as art cars Doherty loved pull up to serve as an impromptu stage for readings and elegies.
“I hope [attendees] feel love, remembrance, and permission to grieve,” Smith said. “I want it to be a monument to Brian’s life, but also a living communal space where people can bring their own feelings, memories, and energy.”
Read More:
• Artist Diana Ries Sheldon keeps Castleberry Hill’s creative heart beating
• Advocates claim proposed Adair Park data center plans mirror historical redlining
After Burning Man ends, organizers are discussing moving the sculpture to Love Burn, a Miami-area event held each year around Valentine’s Day. It was one of Doherty’s favorite gatherings outside Burning Man itself.
For now, Smith’s focus is inside his warehouse, finishing a story that began with a heart-shaped sculpture 26 years ago, and ends, for now, with another.
