A Textile Art Installation?

 There were over 300 art installations at Burning Man 2026.  I know I didn't see all of them, but I saw a lot of them.  They were nearly all made of metal.  A few made of wood.  Most were quite large - impressively so.  Some were quite smallish - maybe more human sized pieces.   But all I saw had hard surfaces.

Not one was made of fiber or fabric.  I understand this.  The wind and elements are very hard on fibers.  But there were lots and lots of tents, and canopies.  Not to mention all the cushions, rugs, and upholstered furniture in the camps.  (so many of these - I honestly don't know how they clean these afterwards)

Three weeks later, I am still cleaning up from Burning Man.

But I have to admit, I was intrigued and fascinated by the way the dust created a patina on fabric surfaces in a way that was transformative.  

I had taken a denim throw made of old jeans to use as a rug at the entrance to our RV.  It wasn't all that effective, because it was immediately caked with dust.  The wind blew it around and the water turned the dust to mud, and it became rather sculptural.  This was intriguing to me.  It interested me as much as it disgusted me.  

The idea I woke up with the day after leaving Black Rock City is to create something huge out of denim - of old jeans sewn together to make something large.  I envisioned a huge tunnel - tall - maybe 15 feet tall.  Panels of old jeans sewn together covering a large wooden frame made of posts.  It would be something that could be entered, walked or driven through.  From a distance it would just look like a big blue structure.  But as people got closer, it would begin to reveal it is made of fabric and the fabric is denim jeans.  100s of pairs of jeans!

This is my idea.  

Can I accomplish this?  Is it feasible?  Can I physically sit at my sewing machine? I have not really done so in nearly 10 years!  Will my arthritic hands still handle scissors and needles and thread?  Does my sewing machine still work and can it sew through denim?  Where will I get so many jeans?  I'll need hundreds of pairs.  Can I do it myself or do I need to recruit a team?

I don't know the answer to these questions, but the idea and the vision is staying with me, so I feel I must methodically start to evaluate this idea for feasibility.