For They Know Not What They Do.
A monumental winged sword — coiled by twin serpents, crowned by the all-seeing eye — rising from the playa at sunset. Help us ship it across oceans, through customs, and a hundred miles of dust to Black Rock City.
A caduceus rising from the Playa.
In the vast silence of the desert, art has the power to stop us in our tracks and ask deeper questions about who we are. For They Know Not What They Do is a monumental steel caduceus rising from the Playa — a sword entwined by serpents, crowned with the wings of Hermes and an all-seeing eye — built to spark reflection and conversation among the thousands who encounter it at Burning Man.
Constructed from stainless steel, brass, copper, and mild steel, the sculpture will catch and scatter desert light throughout the day and night. As people move around it, reflections bend and distort, inviting participants to see themselves within the work.
The entwined serpents represent the dual forces shaping human systems — creation and destruction, obedience and rebellion. The sword forms an axis of authority, symbolizing powers that both protect and control. The wings of Hermes gesture toward transcendence, while the mirrored eye reflects the viewer back to themselves.
This is a collective vision. Over roughly twelve weeks, fabricators, welders, engineers, and a lighting specialist will come together to shape, assemble, and illuminate this dream piece by piece.
Your support will help cover materials, fabrication, transport to the Nevada desert, installation, and crew costs. Every contribution helps transform raw metal into a shared experience on the Playa — something thousands of people will encounter, question, and remember beneath the vast desert sky.
Thank you for helping bring For They Know Not What They Do into the world.
Support Jai's mission.
Jai is the artist and driving force behind For They Know Not What They Do — creating the unseen scene, piece by piece. He's pulling together a crew of fabricators, welders, engineers, and a lighting specialist to bring this monumental caduceus to the Playa.
Your contribution funds the metal, the hands, and the miles between the studio and Black Rock City.
Jai is sponsored by CadenceOps, who provides platform access to help coordinate the build and bring this dream to the Playa.
Every dollar moves metal toward the desert.
Materials, fabrication, freight, installation, and crew — your contribution funds every stage of bringing this sculpture to Black Rock City.
Donate on GoFundMeScan the poster or tap the button — both go to GoFundMe
Turning chaos into a calm, coordinated production.
Taking a large-scale sculpture to Black Rock City isn't just art — it's a full production project. Crew, trucks, materials, permits, fire-art approvals, and a brutally hard deadline (the Playa doesn't wait). Most of that lives in WhatsApp threads, spreadsheets, and PDFs. CadenceOps is sponsoring Jai's access to their platform — the operational backbone behind the build, the journey to the Playa, and the trip back home to Australia.
Roster fabricators, welders, and riggers, track certifications, and send call sheets — no more chasing people through group chats.
Truck packs, vehicle schedules, bump-in timing, and route planning from the studio to the Nevada desert and back.
Track every tool, fixing, and consumable that's on hand, packed, or still needed — so nothing critical gets left behind.
Art installation questionnaires, engineering sign-offs, fire safety, and Leave No Trace — tracked with deadlines and alerts.
Grants, crowdfunding, and contributions rolled up against build costs in real time, so the budget stays honest.
A live timeline from first fabrication day through placement, burn, and strike — the whole crew on the same page.
Coordinating the trip back to Australia — crew demob, freight, and equipment returns once Black Rock City disappears.
Replacing the WhatsApp-and-hope-for-the-best workflow with a calm, coordinated production system.
Logistics is the art behind the art.
Ocean and air freight from the studio to the US west coast, with crating built to survive the trip.
Carnets, broker fees, and trucking from the port to Black Rock City — the part nobody sees.
Crew housing, food, fuel, and the on-playa materials it takes to install (and sometimes burn) the work.
Put your name on the manifest.
Every dollar moves a pound of art a little closer to the playa.
Donate on GoFundMe