Olympic breakdancer Raygun gets neon tribute in California desert

When popular Southern California artist Darren Pearson, who also goes by the name “Dariustwin,” saw the videos and memes circulating around Australian breakdancer Raygun at the Paris Olympics, he knew exactly what to do.

In a video posted to his various social media platforms that boast over a million followers, he created an animation of Rachael Gunn, also known as “Raygun,” as a tribute to the B-girl who went viral for her unorthodox dance moves. The animation consists of 44 light painting photos of her dancing at the Olympics that he created near Frazier Park, about an hour and a half north of Los Angeles.

Pearson is known for his light paintings, which he creates using a long-exposure photography technique and a moving light source to “paint” against the backdrop of a dark sky and bright stars. The San Diego native travels all over California to find the best locations for his light paintings.

“It was a tribute to her just doing her thing and it wasn’t meant as a diss or anything like that,” he said. “I was kind of like this is iconic and people are going to remember this thing.”

But some viewers have used the video to continue the negative discourse surrounding Gunn, a dancer that they believe did not deserve to be at this year’s Olympics.

“This was so much more impressive than the original performance,” one comment read, receiving over 3,000 likes.

Others called her an insult to the spirit of the Olympic Games and demanded that she be held accountable for “stealing an Olympic seat.”

“So many people are so much more talented, her own company shouldn’t be allowed to award her a seat,” another comment read.

Pearson said he did not mean to direct any negativity toward Gunn and created the animation as a way to have fun with her viral performance.

“People kind of took the ball and ran with it as they do,” he said. “She did what she did and I do what I do.”

Gunn spoke out against the hate surrounding her Olympic performance, saying in a video posted to Instagram on Aug. 15, “I didn’t realize that that would open the door to so much hate which has frankly been pretty devastating. While I did go out there and have fun, I did take it very seriously. I worked my butt off preparing for the Olympics and I gave my all, truly.”

Gunn started training and competing as a B-girl in 2012 after seeing an all-girl dance battle. By day, she is a lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, where she received her bachelor’s degree and PhD in music and cultural studies.

Some came to her defense on Pearson’s Instagram post, condemning the negative comments and praising Pearson for choosing to make her performance into a piece of artwork.

“Happy to see someone making art instead of making fun of her,” one comment read. “I would hate to be in the public eye these days.”