We are The BRC Twine Ball Collective and we are building and creating the largest ball of twine in Nevada, dedicated to the memory of our friend Andrej Kucher, who tragically lost his life to gun violence last year. It is our mission to commemorate and celebrate our friend Andrej and create a piece of art that would make him feel “so charmed”.
The wood, fuel, art and paint will all cost money, so we need some help with this. Please consider donating here: https://gofund.me/a39fc65d All money will go to materials so that the 30 volunteers and friends that want this project to happen can have a space to honor our friend!
Our project will recreate the Weird Al song “Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota,”(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv_QUiDYTTg) but do it in Nevada. The song itself is, ultimately, an absurd undertaking about another absurd undertaking: the twine ball itself. Burningman is also pretty absurd… it is long and difficult and from outside of it, it seems just confusing. Why would you do that? Why pour so much energy into this ridiculous thing. I think making a twine ball captures a lot of that absurdism.I encourage you to watch some of these videos if you are curious.
We are aiming to have a large ball of twine that the community can contribute to ahead of time and during the event. It may live on as an actual roadside attraction in Gerlach. It will be under a “makeshift” pagoda like the other famous twine balls. We will have a twine ball museum with docents to lead tours and give talks on the history of twine, twine balls and the people who made them. A “gift shop” with postcards, pickled weiners and diet chocolate soda, among MANY other things will be in the city. We are planning a few “road trips” on art cars so we can take participants on a ride and experience the sheer immensity of the ball at the conclusion of the ride.
Interactivity will include twine ball winding for the public to add to it, docent tours and lectures on the history of twine balls. We may have Weird Al sing along night(s), with, perhaps live accordion.
Our main objective is to honor our friend Andrej who we miss more than words or art projects can describe. We know he would be thrilled to know that this is happening and he’d be so pissed he couldn’t be here to see it. So in his honor we will have live renditions of the Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota/Nevada (one of his favorite Weird Al songs) as well as Weird Al singalongs and karaoke. We chose to use our grief to create something positive and fun, and to rejoice in his memory, which we believe he would have loved. The art piece will have many mentions of Andrej and Weird Al, and anyone will be able to enjoy it, whether or not they have had the pleasure of knowing these individuals.