Daniel Popper Builds Giants You Can Walk Through (32 Photos)
By Vidar
Inside Daniel Popper’s Monumental Sculptures
A woman opens her chest to form a living entrance in Tulum. Three figures rise among the trees in Portugal. In Ibiza, forest spirits watch over a glowing dance floor. Daniel Popper’s sculptures often become spaces people can enter, walk through or gather beneath.
Meet Daniel Popper, the Artist Behind These Monumental Figures
Daniel Popper is a South African multidisciplinary artist, born in 1983 and based in Cape Town. He graduated with distinction in painting from the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town in 2006. He began working at festivals soon afterwards.
His route into large-scale art began at AfrikaBurn. In a VISI interview, Popper recalled making his first giant puppet for the festival in 2007. Festival work brought dancers, weather, sound and temporary communities into the picture. People could also walk straight through the work.
Popper’s recurring faces, hands and open chests often become gates, stages, chapels or shelters. Early works were built from bamboo, salvaged rope and reclaimed wood; newer commissions use engineered steel frames, glass-fiber-reinforced concrete, fiberglass, cast aluminum, ceramic mosaic and living plants.
His studio moves from drawing and digital modeling through engineering, fabrication and on-site assembly, often with local builders, craftspeople, painters, gardeners and projection artists. Popper describes that meeting of handwork and digital production in Where Nature Meets Technology.
The works below range from his 2013 structures in South Africa to the 2026 premiere of Bhūtarāh in Ibiza. They also include several Popper works previously featured on Street Art Utopia: Hallow, SENTIENT, UMI, True Nature, Chasm and Ven a la Luz.
🔗 Follow Daniel Popper: Instagram · Facebook · Work archive · Elemental Monuments book
🌿 Bhūtarāh at UNVRS in Ibiza, Spain 🇪🇸
Co-created with elrow, Bhūtarāh fills UNVRS in Sant Rafael, Ibiza with a complete scenographic world. At its center is the Mother of the Forest, surrounded by Artemis Cats, Kodama-inspired forest spirits and two colossal hands that form the entrance. The world premiere took place on June 6, 2026.
💡 Nerd Fact: The installation was conceived as a changing ecosystem where sculpture, performers, lighting and the crowd all become part of the same story. UNVRS has more from the premiere.
Original post: Daniel Popper · Photo: Welcome to Ibiza
💃 Dancer at Boomland near Idanha-a-Nova, Portugal 🇵🇹
Three pale figures turn around one another while rootlike forms knot their bodies into a single composition. Inspired by the three-headed goddess, Dancer stands permanently in Boomland’s Sacred Fire space.
💡 Nerd Fact: Dancer stands 12 meters tall on an 11-meter-diameter base. It was made with a steel subframe, glass-fiber-reinforced concrete, and ceramic and mirror mosaic.
Original project: Daniel Popper
❤️ Lovers at EDC Las Vegas, Nevada, USA 🇺🇸
Two enormous profiles lean toward a shared center while fireworks flare behind them. From one angle they read as separate bodies; from another, the open space between them forms a new silhouette.
The 6.55-meter work is made from fiberglass and concrete.
Original project: Daniel Popper
🍄 Mycelia at Burning Man in Nevada, USA 🇺🇸
A white, weathered head rises from the playa with fungi growing from its broken crown. This was the Black Rock City debut of Mycelia. Popper had previously described the sculpture as touring the United States after its 2022 Human+Nature display. Projection mapping covered the 2025 presentation after dark.
💡 Nerd Fact: The 15-foot figure used a steel subframe, glass-fiber-reinforced polymer resin and ceramic mosaic. Its weathered, cracked finish made it look as if it had already survived years in the desert.
Original post: Daniel Popper · Photo: My Modern Met · Event archive: Burning Man Project
☀️ Lumen in Wynwood, Miami, Florida, USA 🇺🇸
Unveiled on December 4, 2024, Lumen permanently frames the 2nd Avenue entrance to Society Wynwood. Vine- and rootlike forms descend from the face around the doorway, so every arrival passes through the sculpture rather than around it.
The 30-foot sculpture is built around an internal steel armature, with fiberglass surfaces covered in cracked tile mosaic.
Original project: Daniel Popper
🌱 Aeonium at EDC Orlando, Florida, USA 🇺🇸
Oversized succulent rosettes climb a 16-foot female figure and gather across her eyes, face and torso. Popper debuted Aeonium at EDC Orlando in November 2024; a later showing during IGNITE Broward placed it at ArtsPark at Young Circle in February 2025.
💡 Nerd Fact: Aeoniums are succulents whose leaf rosettes resemble flowers. They give the work both its name and its structure.
Original project: Daniel Popper
🌍 Earth Sentinels at Nuanu Creative City in Bali, Indonesia 🇮🇩
Two monumental heads face one another at the entrance to Nuanu Creative City in Tabanan Regency, their black branching crowns cutting into the sky. At night, projection mapping created with DELIVERED covers the pale guardians with changing images.
💡 Nerd Fact: The installation reaches about 45 feet and combines engineered steel, glass-fiber-reinforced concrete and living plants.
Original project: Daniel Popper
📡 Transmission in Joshua Tree, California, USA 🇺🇸
A meditative face and torso stand beyond several pairs of monumental hands, turning the desert path into an entrance and an exit. Crescent-shaped openings and small areas of iridescent mosaic catch the hard Joshua Tree light.
The 32-foot installation stands at Mojave Moon Ranch, a private residence in Joshua Tree. Its steel structure and glass-fiber-reinforced concrete are set with dichroic tiles that change color as the viewing angle shifts.
💡 Nerd Fact: NASA revived dichroic-glass production in the 1950s and 1960s to help protect astronauts from unfiltered solar radiation. The vacuum process deposited up to several dozen metal coatings with a combined thickness of about 30 millionths of an inch.
Original project: Daniel Popper
🌸 Hallow at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, USA (2021–2023) 🇺🇸
A 26-foot figure parts her chest while spring blossoms blur the foreground. The opening frames the woodland path behind her.
💡 Nerd Fact: Hallow was one of the five original monumental works in Popper’s Human+Nature exhibition, which ran at The Morton Arboretum from May 2021 through February 2023. In 2024, it found a permanent home at the Equal Justice Initiative’s Freedom Monument Sculpture Park in Montgomery, Alabama.
Original project: Daniel Popper · Current home: Freedom Monument Sculpture Park · More: 5 Photos of “Hallow” in Lisle, Illinois
🌴 Ven a la Luz in Tulum, Mexico 🇲🇽
A woman gently pulls apart her chest to reveal a tunnel packed with living greenery. Visitors enter the 33-foot gateway through the opening.
💡 Nerd Fact: Created for the 2018 Art With Me festival at Ahau Tulum, Ven a la Luz was built from steel, wood, rope and natural fibers. Its Spanish title means “Come into the Light.” In October 2021, it was permanently relocated to Art With Me Park inside the Ahau Tulum complex.
Original project: Daniel Popper · More: Come into the Light in Tulum, Mexico
🌿 Thrive in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA 🇺🇸
A colossal figure opens at the chest, where ferns fill a shaded passage. People can walk through the planted cavity at the center.
The 27-foot permanent work was completed in 2020 for Society Las Olas, using a steel structure, glass-fiber-reinforced concrete and fiberglass.
Original project: Daniel Popper
🪨 UMI at The Aurora Highlands in Aurora, Colorado, USA 🇺🇸
A seated woman made from intertwined roots rises from the Colorado prairie. Her open, bower-like body was first seen in the Human+Nature exhibition in Illinois before UMI found a permanent home at Hogan Park at Highlands Creek, part of The Aurora Highlands, in August 2023.
💡 Nerd Fact: Popper’s archive connects the name to the Arabic for “mother,” while its Colorado host also notes that umi means “ocean” in Japanese. The current 21-foot installation combines steel, glass-fiber-reinforced concrete, fiberglass, wood and natural fibers.
Current project: Daniel Popper · More: Earlier UMI photos from Illinois
🌀 True Nature in Cancún, Mexico 🇲🇽
One figure holds a detached face in front of the hollow shell of its head, where ferns occupy the space a mind might be.
Installed at Bohemian Square in 2023, the 16-foot work was created with Grupo Rosanegra and is built with a steel subframe and glass-fiber-reinforced concrete.
Original project: Daniel Popper
🧘 Tendai at TAO Beach Dayclub in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA 🇺🇸
Eyes closed in meditation, Tendai raises many hands in gestures of praise and blessing while real and sculpted plants gather around her. The work was created for the Asian-themed TAO Beach Dayclub in 2022.
The 15-foot, roughly 8,000-pound sculpture combines glass-fiber-reinforced concrete and fiberglass over a steel subframe. Its name is both a Zimbabwean name meaning “give thanks to God” and the name of an early Japanese school of Buddhism.
Original project: Daniel Popper
🍄 Mycelia at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, USA (2022–2023) 🇺🇸
A serene white face rises among the trees while mushrooms spiral up its chest and emerge around its head. Added to Human+Nature in 2022, Mycelia later toured the United States and made its Black Rock City debut in 2025.
💡 Nerd Fact: At Morton, the work stood just over 12 feet and was built from concrete, fiberglass and steel. It refers to mycelium—the network of threadlike fungal structures that grows through soil and other material.
Original project: Daniel Popper · Context: The Morton Arboretum
😌 SENTIENT at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, USA (2021–2023) 🇺🇸
An 18-foot meditating bust is surrounded by fractured facial features interwoven with rootlike structures. Popper connects the surrounding faces to modern society’s external noise and digital demands. The central figure keeps its eyes closed.
SENTIENT was one of the original five works in Human+Nature, which ran at The Morton Arboretum from May 2021 through February 2023 and later expanded to eight sculptures.
Original project: Daniel Popper · More: SENTIENT – Return to Stillness
🤲 Heartwood in Montgomery, Alabama, USA 🇺🇸
A serene woman is cleaved into two halves that flank a woodland path. The exposed inner planes resemble both fingerprints and tree rings, linking human identity to the slow growth recorded inside a trunk.
💡 Nerd Fact: First made for Human+Nature, Heartwood moved to a temporary installation on Chicago’s Museum Campus from March 2023 to April 2024 before reaching its permanent home at the Equal Justice Initiative’s Freedom Monument Sculpture Park in Montgomery, Alabama.
Original project: Daniel Popper
🛕 Basilica at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, USA (2021–2023) 🇺🇸
Two long, rootlike arms stretch across the grass and end in open hands large enough to shelter a person. Visitors can walk around and between the limbs of the 37-foot work.
Popper designed the piece as a gathering space, with rootlike forms echoing both plant roots and human veins and arteries.
💡 Nerd Fact: The word basilica derives from the Greek basilikē stoa, meaning “royal portico.” Roman basilicas were civic halls used for public assemblies, business and judicial proceedings; early Christian churches were often modeled on them.
Original project: Daniel Popper
🦋 Ephemera at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, USA (2022–2023) 🇺🇸
A 12-foot blue figure bends forward with its hands cupped at the center while two yellow daffodils flare from gramophone-like ears.
Added to Human+Nature in 2022, the work asks visitors to notice nature’s sounds as well as its forms. Its title’s also points to fleeting change: blossoms, insects, seasons and the people moving through them.
💡 Nerd Fact: The title ultimately derives from the Greek ephēmeros, meaning “lasting a day”. The same root names the mayfly order Ephemeroptera: mayfly development can take one to four years, while adults of some species emerge, reproduce and die within a single day.
Original project: Daniel Popper · Context: The Morton Arboretum
🍃 Ginkgo at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, USA (2022–2023) 🇺🇸
A blue-green face emerges from a crown of oversized ginkgo leaves. Their repeated fan shapes break up the outline of the portrait.
💡 Nerd Fact: The eight-foot cast-aluminum sculpture was created for the Arboretum’s 2022 centennial, with 100 leaves representing 100 years. After Illinois, it moved to a permanent home at The Elser Hotel in Miami.
Original project: Daniel Popper
✨ Modem Swamp at Mo:Dem Festival in Donje Primišlje, Croatia 🇭🇷
A monumental woman holds her own face in front of her like a mask, revealing a dark, plant-filled space inside her head. At night, projection mapping covers the 26-foot figure with shifting scales, grids and color.
💡 Nerd Fact: The sculpture first appeared at Mo:Dem’s 2019 Swamp stage at the festival grounds in Donje Primišlje; Popper’s contemporary post documents that year, although his current portfolio lists 2021. Nicknamed Jolene by the festival crew, the 26-foot work combines steel, fiberglass and glass-fiber-reinforced concrete; its removable face draws on Carl Jung’s idea of the persona.
Original project: Daniel Popper · Story: Behind The Swamp
🎨 Chasm at EDC Las Vegas, Nevada, USA 🇺🇸
One monumental face is cleaved into two halves, exposing its metal armature while graffiti covers the supporting forms. Popper’s 26-foot sculpture was painted by a team led by graffiti artist A-A-Ron (@ag_pnt), with contributions from Isabella “Izzy” Addison and Xavi Panneton.
💡 Nerd Fact: Shown at EDC in 2021 and 2022, Chasm was formed from EPS foam over a metal armature and finished in concrete before the painting began.
Original project: Daniel Popper · Original artist post: Daniel Popper · More: “Chasm” in Las Vegas
🌞 Siyanda at 1 Hotel South Beach in Miami, Florida, USA (2021–2022) 🇺🇸
Flowers, vines and rootlike strands coil around a 27-foot figure whose hands rest quietly at her chest. This view comes from the work’s 2021–2022 installation at 1 Hotel South Beach. It was also shown at Bellagio Las Vegas in 2021, and Popper says it is now a permanent fixture at the Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival grounds in Florida.
Siyanda comes from the isiZulu phrase for “we are growing,” and Popper describes the work as a reflection on the intertwined growth of people and nature.
Original project: Daniel Popper
🌼 Anima at EDC Las Vegas, Nevada, USA 🇺🇸
A vast head and two open hands surround festivalgoers. Floral details cover parts of the monumental face.
The 22-foot work debuted at EDC Las Vegas in 2019, returned there through 2022 and was also shown at EDC Orlando in 2022. Its base included a glass floor where festivalgoers could gather above a planted terrarium; the sculpture combines steel, fiberglass, wood and natural fibers.
Original project: Daniel Popper
🧘♀️ Asana at Ahau Tulum, Mexico (2019) 🇲🇽
A figure holds the upward-facing dog pose toward the Caribbean, its wood-grained surface broken by an open, laced chest filled with plants. Asana faces away from the viewer and toward the horizon.
The 20-foot work was made from EPS foam over a metal armature and finished in concrete. Originally installed at Ahau Tulum for Art With Me in 2019, it was renovated and permanently installed at Centro Holístico Akalki in Bacalar in 2022.
Original project: Daniel Popper · Current installation: Daniel Popper
💚 Heartland / Open Heart at Compton Gardens & Arboretum in Bentonville, Arkansas, USA 🇺🇸
Two enormous hands cradle a heart whose hollow center overflows with greenery. The opening frames the trees behind it from different viewpoints.
Created for the 2018 Heartland Summit, the sculpture now stands permanently at Compton Gardens & Arboretum. Its owner, OZ Art NWA, catalogues the work as Heartland, while Popper’s own portfolio uses Open Heart.
Original project: Daniel Popper
🌙 Leto at Scorpios in Mykonos, Greece 🇬🇷
A 16-foot profile made from wicker and cane glows against the night. Its hollow structure and internal lighting form the monumental face.
💡 Nerd Fact: The wicker-and-cane work was made for The Eternal Festival at Scorpios in 2019. Two lanterns inside symbolize Leto’s twins, Apollo and Artemis, while its abstract form was inspired by ancient Cycladic clay figures.
Original project: Daniel Popper
🚪 Emergence at Boom Festival in Idanha-a-Nova, Portugal 🇵🇹
A many-armed figure guards Boom Festival’s Dance Temple, with a passage and gathering space inside its body.
The 39-foot installation was created in 2018, two years after Popper’s Boom Shaman. Built from wood, steel, rope, natural fibers and greenery, its nighttime projections were designed in collaboration with Wayne Ellis.
Original project: Daniel Popper
🔥 Boom Shaman at Boom Festival in Idanha-a-Nova, Portugal 🇵🇹
A wooden shaman towers at Boom Festival’s Dance Temple, functioning as its guardian, a gathering place and a daytime retreat from the dance floor. After dark, projection mapping by Wayne Ellis animated the figure.
The 39-foot work was created in Idanha-a-Nova in 2016 from wood, steel, rope, natural fibers, greenery and reclaimed materials from the land.
Original project: Daniel Popper
🌲 Lady Vine at Electric Forest in Rothbury, Michigan, USA 🇺🇸
A golden woman stands between the pines. The surrounding trunks continue the vertical lines of the sculpture.
Built as the centerpiece of Sherwood Forest at Electric Forest in Rothbury, Michigan, in 2016, the work stands eight meters—about 26 feet—high and combines a steel subframe with wood, rope and vines.
Original project: Daniel Popper
🌳 Tree of Wisdom in Mvezo, South Africa 🇿🇦
A slender metal trunk lifts a branching canopy over the grounds of the Nelson Mandela School of Science and Technology. After dark, the branches are illuminated.
💡 Nerd Fact: Contemporary reporting dates the work to December 2013 and records it at 11 meters and about four tons. It was fabricated from galvanized steel in Cape Town, cut into sections and trucked 1,290 kilometers to Mvezo, where its granite base was inscribed with Mandela quotations. Popper’s current portfolio instead lists 32 feet and 2015, and spells Mvezo as “Mveso.”
Original project: Daniel Popper · Contemporary report: TimesLIVE · Detailed contemporary report: IOL
🏜️ Reflection at AfrikaBurn in the Tankwa Karoo, South Africa 🇿🇦
An unfinished-looking giant sits on the desert floor with open hands extended toward the viewer. Its exposed armature forms the outer surface of the work.
💡 Nerd Fact: AfrikaBurn’s original listing for its 2013 “Archetypes” edition at the former Stonehenge Farm site names the work Reflection and credits Daniel Popper with Chris Shelvey. In a contemporary interview, Popper described it as a nine-meter, three-story installation; its lower level held a heart-shaped LED infinity mirror programmed by Justin Eastman. Popper’s current portfolio uses the plural title Reflections and lists 32 feet.
Original project: Daniel Popper · 2013 project listing: AfrikaBurn · Contemporary interview: VISI
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