About the installation
One Tin Soldier is the culmination of a vision that started with Remember When in 2022. Lead artist Mark Deem and the Misfit Toys collective received a 2025 Honorarium from Burning Man Project to bring this monumental installation to Black Rock City.
As you walk from the city deep into the playa, objects slowly come into view, rising from the desert. Lost. Incomplete. A series of giant children's toys scattered across the open playa. The closer you get, the smaller you feel. Everything looms large, as if you were shrinking, or they are growing.
As you near, the worn, weathered features and faded primary colors become clear. A 16-foot stack of LOVE blocks invites you to climb and play. Giant metal jax lay scattered, piled high. A 12-foot yo-yo buried in the dust. And finally, facing east towards the rising sun, a 24-foot tall mounted, faceless wooden soldier stands guard, its reins a swing, welcoming you to ride with him.
While calling to the sepia-toned memory of and a return to child-like play, One Tin Soldier is a statement about the evolution of play from toys of love and education to toys of war. How will we feel climbing a giant soldier on horseback, painted in primary colors, after visiting the blocks inviting us to LOVE? Curiouser and curiouser… we become small, we go down the rabbit hole.
Built by the Misfit Toys crew with support from Burning Man Project, One Tin Soldier represents hundreds of hours of welding, carpentry, painting, and collaboration. After Burning Man, we dismantle everything and leave no trace. But for one week, these toys live on the playa, reminding everyone that play is sacred.