Arise | Burning Man Project
TITLE: Arise
ARTISTs: The Art RIsing
24 August - 1 SeptemBER 2025
Introduction
Arise is an embodiment of collective awakening — a towering figure forged in metal with a copper, bronze, and brass patina. Her radiant colors catch both sunlight and flame. Standing eighteen feet tall and spanning thirty feet wide, she carries staffs ignited with fire — a beacon of transformation, guiding humanity through this era of reckoning and renewal.
She represents the rise of the divine feminine, the reemergence of wisdom, compassion, and strength that has long been held in the Earth and within us all. Her expansive form holds the weight of generations, yet her gesture is one of ascension — a call to rise, to remember, and to restore balance in these times of great change.
Arise is not only a sculpture, but a gathering point — a vessel of story and ceremony, where metal meets myth, and where the feminine spirit takes its place as guardian of life and light.
Climate Approach to Project
Arise was led by The Art Rising (Angeline Chen and Kyle Block) who are also the founders of Global Coralition which is their non profit dedicated to regenerating marine ecosystems. Global Coralition builds largescale sculptures deployed into the ocean to catalyze coral reef and mangrove restoration. Mangroves sequester 4-10x more carbon than terrestial trees and cost only $1 to plant. By planting mangroves we can offset the carbon footprint of our projects.
Our most recent pilot project in the Dominican Republic is of a sculpture named Atabey, the Mother of Water from the Arawak/Taino indigenous people of the Caribbean. At this site, their local partners have marine protected 40 kilometers of ocean, our team built a coral farming growing thousands of baby corals and with our local partners in Haiti and the DR, we have planted 1.2 million mangroves across the island of Kisqueya.
Arise was built as thoughtfully as possible: using reusable wooden molds instead of foam, minimizing waste, sharing resources and transport, and reimagining large-scale sculpture as a regenerative practice — both for people and planet.
Carbon Emissions from Travel (tCO2e): 2.85
Carbon Emissions from Shipping (tCO2e): 1.38
Carbon Emissions from Energy Use (tCO2e): 2.85
Emissions - Other Categories (tCO2e): 3.30
Emissions - Accuracy: Somewhat Accurate
Emissions Calculation Description & Methodology:
A typical industry assumption is that welders have a 30% duty cycle, meaning they are actively welding for about 30% of their working hours = 624 welding hours.
Total estimated welding emissions for 3 months =
1,302kg (electricity)+948kg (shielding gas)=2,250kg COe.
1,302kg(electricity)+948kg(shieldinggas)=2,250kgCO
2,250 kg CO2e is equal to 2.25 metric tonnes of CO2e.
Travel was calculated via 2 cars that drove roundtrip from LA to black rock city. For 4 people, the total CO2e is approximately
4×(0.375−0.5)=1.5−2.0
4×(0.375−0.5)=1.5−2.0
metric tons.
Shipping was calculated via one large 48 foot flat bed roundtrip.
Food and housing:
Calculation: 5 people × 5.44 kg CO2e/day × 122 days = 3,318 kg CO2e (or approx. 3.3 metric tons).
We utilized propane for the fire features, which were quite minimal (two torches) that were on from 11 pm to 5 AM.
Waste Report Description & Methodology:
Steel cut offs (small pieces of steel that can't really be reused: some were collected by neighboring shops to be reused and we saved some for future projects)
Shavings from the welding rods becomes metal dust.
Packaging from tools (boxes and plastic wrapping that are recycled)
Used grinding discs
Grinding metal dust
Personal trash (food, tissues/napkins) - we compost + used reusable cutlery/plates/bottles, etc.
Climate Actions Taken:
Sorting/Recycling and Composting throughout the build
Minimizing waste produced
Choosing more eco-friendly methods of building (such as using wood formers instead of foam)
Offsetting Carbon through Mangrove Restoration
How did the project support staff to take climate action?
Our team is part of our Global Coralition team so they are all very eco-minded and aware of the personal and collective footprint that we make. Knowing that the carbon footprint that is unavoidable, we are intentionally offsetting through our mangrove restoration efforts. We also utilized our sculpture as a way to raise awareness and support towards our ecological efforts, recognizing that art can be a powerful medium to garner support.
How did the project promote collective action or movement building?
Our team carpooled and travelled together, we ate together - shared meals that created less waste. We made an effort as a team to sort and recycle our trash and create minimum waste.
We are also part of a larger collective movement and initiative Global Coralition - which instils regeneration and sustainability into our everyday actions as well as our larger mission.
Reflections from Presenting Partner, Artists, and other stakeholders:
Main Artists: The Art Rising + Global Coralition - we would love to explore how to move our lighting installation into a more renewable option so we do not need to use a generator.
Always explore how to improve our material use and where we can source more renewable/recycled materials during fabrication.
Exhibition credits:
We were supported by Lotus Art Fund - to whom we are very grateful for their support in making this project possible. Our non profit Global Coralition supported this project to help make it carbon neutral.