Photo: Screenshot from website

 
As the 2023 Burning Man Festival theme was Animal Kingdom, Chinese artist He Miao created "Mona," an 8-meter-high metal rabbit weighing 2 tons. Born in Shehong, Sichuan Province, He experienced a rural childhood featuring green mountains and clear waters, as well as warm memories of pet rabbits. The story of Alice in Wonderland, combined with the traditional Chinese story (as the rabbit is one of the 12 Chinese zodiac animals), inspired her design.

Mona stood next to the burning man, a huge totemic figure that is incinerated at the end of each festival. From a distance, He’s sculpture looked like a pink soft inflatable toy, but up close, one could see that it was made of multiple pieces of metal, joined and shaped with great craftsmanship. The work had a huge impact, and everyone who passed by made exclamations of awe, sighing at the exquisiteness of Chinese artistry. "Mona" was not only a work of art; it also served as a landmark to guide festival participants. Its large volume, pink color, and extremely high elevation among the animal art installations helped everyone at Burning Man orient themselves and find their way back to camp.

Mona became the center of many spontaneous activities. Thousands of rabbit actors performed carnival bunny marches, and some held romantic weddings under Mona. During the ceremony, various art-and-music cars parked next to the sculpture, encouraging everyone to celebrate, and rock-climbing experts attempted to scale Mona like a cliff.

He’s Mona uses traditional Chinese culture as a contemporary art expression to convey the power of China to the world. The artist also hopes that Mona Rabbit can become a cultural and artistic envoy, traveling around the world to foster a better future.

Every year, the Burning Man Festival creates a fantasy utopia in the US state of Nevada, drawing some 80,000 people from all over the world to spend 8 days building artworks in the desert.