Dicapria
installation art & art director
Gummy Bear Pyramid Light Art Installation
Wander into the land of your imagination as you enter the Gummy Bear Pyramid, a 14 foot tall light art installation made of over 200,000 hand-casted, glowing gummy bears.
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Created by Dicapria and the Gummy Bear Pyramid Crew
This art installation was an Honorarium Recipient premiering at Burning Man 2017 and continues to tour the world.
Our Vision
Gummy Bear Pyramid is a 14 foot tall pyramid light installation made out of over 200,000 hand casted gummy bears.
Follow your imaginary sweet tooth to a land of rainbow hue constructed nostalgia.
The Gummy Bear Pyramid is designed to awaken the imagination and encourage creative expression. Our vision is to provide a space that inspires anyone that enters to play and engage with others' creative, colorful minds. It is our hope, that upon entering the pyramid, visitors will start to investigate the rainbow pixelated imagery and discover for themselves what the whole structure is made out of, triggering a sense of playful spiritual reverence that elicits worship of the mind, and the endless possibilities of worlds it can create.
Specs
Over 200,000 small bears were hand casted out of custom molds using urethane plastic and dyed to radiate a rainbow prism of translucent hues. The bears are similar in size to that of the traditional candy. Each bear placed individually to form elaborate patterns on all four sides of the pyramid.
The pyramid's base structure is constructed out of metal with custom dual-paned acrylic boxes that encase the mosaic of bears. The translucency of the acrylic allows the sun to illuminate the bears during the day, while LED lights illuminate the pyramid at night. Visitors will be able to enter the pyramid opening up to 250 sq. ft. of play room. The footprint is 16 feet wide on each of the four bases and 14 feet tall at the apex.
Why Gummy Bears?
The original idea came about in 2012, when lead artist, Dicapria, began to experiment with ideas for a new light installation series. The artist, who had been inspired for years by various architectural line work, Tibetan Buddhist sand mandalas, stained glass, crop circles, and the Lite-Brite toy, turned to an unlikely medium- gummy bears. Her 2013 Art Series, Gummy Bear Mandalas, were constructed with gelatin gummy bears and resin in acrylic light boxes and refurbished window frames.
From there, she wanted to take this series a step further: “By expanding the idea into a more large scale geometric shape, I hope that there will be a more direct, intimate experience that provides an opportunity for the imagination to light up and re-awaken, that encourages creative play, and a sort of self-worship of the mind and all the sweetness that the imagination is capable of creating. ” -Dicapria
Will they melt?
Gelatin melts at about 85 degrees Fahrenheit. So we spent a lot of time researching, consulting with experts, and experimenting with different synthetic materials to find the best type of product that could withstand high temperatures and UV rays, was easy to work with and dye, fit within our budget, and cured relatively quickly. We settled on using a type of liquid plastic that we caste from a uniquely designed gummy bear mold. The bears will withstand the heat and sun exposure and will emulate a candy gummy bear, with our own custom designed bear with pyramid belly.
Can I lick the pyramid?
If you'd like...
Exactly how many bears are there?
We're taking guesses. But we estimate around 200,000.
Gummy Bear Pyramid on Tour
The Gummy Bear Pyramid is looking for other festivals, art shows, civic arts displays, etc to be installed at around the world. To inquire about having the Gummy Bear Pyramid installed at your event, please reach out to us at gummybearpyramid@gmail.com
Still have a sweet tooth? Follow our journey here!
http://www.instagram.com/dicapriaart @dicapriaart
http://www.facebook.com/gummybearpyramid
Contact – gummybearpyramid@gmail.com
Dicapria
Artistic Director/Producer/Lead Artist
Dicapria is a Queer, Peruvian/American artist currently working in Oakland, California. She spent 10yrs working in theatre production (scenic painting, prop design, puppets, production design) throughout Florida, NYC/Brooklyn, Utah, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. She spent the last 5 years focusing more on public street art and fine art including a series of gummy bear mandala light installations and a painting series on wood inspired by ancient alchemy linework, sacred geometry, crop circles, gothic architecture, and native textile design work.
She has a broad range of experience ranging from designing a dystopian set for a rock opera based on the lolcats meme, directing/producing a multi-media absurdist shadow puppetry show at the Long Beach Museum of Art, building puppets for various fringe festivals and films, building tiny diorama sets for a parody webseries based on geekdom fantasy worlds, curating guerilla art shows, art management/consulting for fine artists, stage managing childrens theatre, live painting at various west coast music festivals, painting public murals, to designing stages for music performances. http://www.dicapria.com @dicapriaart
GD Wright
Structural Design/Technical Director
GD Wright is an artist who is no stranger to the bewildering requirements of building massive sculptures in the Black Rock City desert. His first trip to the playa was in 2013, with his now business partner Nathan Kandus. Kandus’ piece they built that year “A Chaotic Affair,” is a 42’ tall rare earth magnet driven pendulum. Astounded by the structural design requirements of this otherworldly, Wright was instantly hooked. Assisting artists with structural design and fabrication on a monumental scale for Burning Man has since become one of Wright’s favorite ways to give back to the wonderful artistic community in Oakland, CA. He has collaborated and offered his expertise for the following BM Honorarium Grant funded pieces; “Between Dimensions,” “Dancing Serpent,” “Heart of Gold,” “La Victrola,” and now Dicapria's innovative work, “Gummy Bear Pyramid”. By day, GD co-runs Envelope Engineers, an industrial design and fabrication business based out of American Steel Studios, the nation’s largest collaborative art studio. His business has built large-scale sculptures for artists seeking professional design and fabrication, as well as managed the production of projects for museums and non-profits in California. GD has created works for the California Academy of Sciences, the Exploratorium, SF Sheriff’s Department, and Google to name a few. He has also been a faculty instructor at the Crucible Industrial Arts School for three years. GD Wright considers this time spent teaching the arts to the youth his greatest achievement, second only to being the proud father of his son, Ember Wright. http://www.gdwright.com @gdwright_art
Lily Stephens
Architect/Design Coordinator
Lily Stephens is an Architect from Melbourne, Australia currently residing in Oakland, CA. Over the past 10 years she has worked on a range of projects from urban master planning, to large scale cultural projects, to small installation pieces. She also started Loop Cycles in 2013, a side project which involved designing bicycles for Burning Man that where re-purposed after the event and sent to Africa as a means of mobility for those in need.
Kate Kuaimoku
Production Manager
Kate Kuaimoku is a fine art framer, preparator, printmaker, sculptor, and educator living in Oakland. Her art practice focuses on sustainability and ecology as strong anchors in her work. Her new body of work which relies heavily on construction materials reflects a new imagined landscape cultivated from the archaic, the man-made, and the excavated. @tamagatchii
Michael Pukac
Co-Conspirator/Artistic Consultant
Michael Pukac is a full time artist specializing in acrylic, Neo-Mannerist, fantasmagorical, fantasy paintings, murals, and design work in Long Beach, California. Dicapria and Pukac have been collaborating on art projects and installations for over 10 years! http://www.michaelpukac.com
Gummy Bear Crew
Michael Pukac, Marin Love, Trevor Twist, Kendrick Feller, Adrian Rodriguez, Gisela Valenzuela, Lisa Rosenthal, Raphael Kerley, Colin (Wizard), Allison Leevers, Robin Ward, Wren Merker, Shoshana Roselinsky, Martin Taylor, Paola Eisner, Indiana Joe Cross, Shane Mason, Lucy Pecora, Shane Saw Sischo, Jeanette Conley, Clarice Robenalt, Emily Toast, Carolina Gallegos, Biz Feinberg, Deb Linton, Tracey Sarita, Ben, Radhika Hersey, Joshua White, and more!
Special Thanks
Arty at Douglas & Sturgess, Luke Iseman, Jim, Hyby Cozo's Serge Beaulleu, Yelena Flipchuk, Kat Brice, Dancing Burning Man, Nathan Krandus, Sarah at Compleat Sculptor, Peter Platzgummer from La Victrola, Meownge, Jes Bailey (with crowdfund-360.com, Fannie & George, and many more)