Burning Man, an annual art festival held in the Nevada desert, draws thousands of creatives from across the United States and the world to showcase over-the-top sculptures.
Hawaiʻi-based artist Jenny “Jeta” Tang recently returned home from the nine-day event that started on Aug. 24 after showcasing her 4-foot-tall art piece, “The Asscent of the Divine Ass.”
The 34-year-old is focused on body sculpture using the female body to create her art. In this case, she used her own lower body to make the sculpture, then placed it in the center of a Shinto-style shrine made of wood.
“The message behind the piece was about body positivity and self-love,” she said.
Tang drew inspiration from her own experience of body shaming herself. She would look in the mirror and nitpick things she didn’t like about her image. So she took up art.
“This Burning Man project was a way of reconciling with that,” she said.
She created a mold of her lower body using resin and foam. The sculpture is placed in a shrine as a way for her body to be worshipped and honored by others at Burning Man.
The shine is a blend of Japanese Shinto architecture, adorned with church candles.
Tang said the piece satires the absurdity of body shame.
“There was a lot more that we can focus on than hating ourselves or hating our bodies,” she said. “The sooner that we can stop hating ourselves and our bodies, the quicker it is that we can go and do the more fun stuff and live our lives.”
Born into an immigrant family, Tang described herself as a closeted artist because her Vietnamese family discouraged her from pursuing the creative route.
“It was all about being stable and making money,” she said.
She was in tech in Silicon Valley, located in California’s San Francisco Bay Area. But she found herself unhappy.
Tang then moved to Hawaiʻi in 2022 to focus on her passion as an artist. She currently attends the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa where she majors in art and philosophy.
“I've been working on building my art practice and really discovering myself as an artist,” she said.
Burning Man originated in 1986 at Baker Beach in California. It started as a spontaneous bonfire ritual by a group of friends, Larry Harvey and Jerry James, where they burned an improvised wooden figure. From there, it attracted more creatives to build large sculptures to burn.
San Francisco authorities deemed the event a fire hazard, which led to the event being relocated to a remote desert in Nevada in 1990.
The event draws nearly 80,000 attendees from around the world.
Tang was one of more than 300 artists who showcased their artworks at the festival. She said 2025 was her first time at Burning Man, and that she was the only Hawaiʻi-based artist.
Although the festival is known for artists burning their work at the end of the event, Tang was not able to light her work on fire. She said her piece didn’t fit the Burning Man guidelines because her work contained toxic materials such as paint.
So she ended up recycling it. Tang said it was her way of letting go of the past to move forward.
Tang said she would go to Burning Man again, but will take a break due to the costs of making the art and planning the trip to Nevada.
She said she spent up to $2,000. That includes making the sculpture and shrine, her flight, and living expenses for nine days in Nevada.
“Burning Man is the art of letting go,” she said. “When you burn your art, something that you had poured your soul into, it’s a way to reflect on how life is temporary. Everything is impermanent, and we're celebrating the fleeting moments.”
