Zsu Zsu brings the princess out in me… sigh… I think I’m in love.
“Feelth” on the other hand fills me a mindless rage of jelousy. I’ll see that weasel BURN!
…Though, I must admit, Feelth is, like myself, a victim of the flighty charms and arduous enchantment that is Zsu Zsu…
The indelible master of the pedal-power madness that is Scotty C. has just completed yet another amazing kinetic sculpture on wheels known as the Duck Flambé. A local rag has a story on a night it hit the town: Fire it up.
What a gorgeous ride! Congratulations, Scotty and co-builder Ken Beidleman!
A large gallery of pictures of construction in progress is available to peruse.
The New York Times reports on a most inspirational slide show look at the art, preparation, and many artists and performers dedicating their time and energy to bring us “KKoney Island”:
I must admit that I’ve been remiss in my posts at CliffyPop lately.
However, my excuses are rich and plentiful as seen in the mushrooming popularity of The Great Handcar Regatta and Krank-Boom-Clank’s “Hennepin Crawler” construction that is coming along nicely (not to mention the many, many summer time events and parties to attend!).
Still there is one thing at least to post about B-Man, here’s a nice rundown of the 2008 Honorarium installations.
The latest project I’m part of is coming along nicely. What is it…? Well, think a 4-person pedal-power kinetic sculpture on handmade 4ft diameter wheels using cannibalized bikes and metal lawn furniture weighing in at over 13 ft long!
We call our crew Krank-Boom-Clank and the “kinetic conveyance of whimsey” we’re building is known as the “Hennepin Crawler“.
We’re well on schedule for both a Burning Man 2008 appearance and racing the rails at The Great Handcar Regatta on Sept. 28th, 2008 in Santa Rosa, CA.
See the picts on Flickr too.
This is most exciting! The 2008 “Honorariums” (grantees) have been posted! I could quite easily spend all day (and the next) greedily perusing the entire long list. Apparently, the kind folks at Burning Man have given a higher number of 38 total grants this year (up from the usual 30 or so). Also, they received more international proposals than ever before. Looks like an amazing year for art (as well as the usual WTF!? projects) on the Playa! See below from Jack Rabbit Speaks:
ANNOUNCING … THE 2008 BURNING MAN HONORARIUM PROJECTS
The Burning Man Art Department is pleased to announce the funded projects for 2008. This year we are funding 38 projects, an increase from our usual 30 or so, as we are funding more small projects. Less than 1/3 of the projects are from the Bay Area, and we received many more proposals from abroad than ever before. We have four overseas projects this year: two from London, one from Amsterdam, and one from Wales. (Note: grants for the Man Base art installations will be announced in a future JRS.)
The funded projects are:
Altered State, by Kate Raudenbush, New York, NY (Click on New: Altered State)
Amazing Jellyfish from Y12K (PDF), by Jared Gallardo, Salt Lake City, UT
Basura Sagrada, by Shrine, Tuktuk, and the Basura Sagrada Collaboratory - Pasadena, CA and Portland,
Bummer, by Myk Henry, New York, NY/Geneva, Switzerland
“Bummer” is a super size Humvee measuring 38 feet long x 18 feet wide x 16 feet high. Half of the Hummer will be painted in military khaki and the other half a bright sporty color. This sculpture epitomizes this country’s obsession with power and the Jekyll and Hyde nature of the American dream.
Celtic Forest, by Laura Kimpton, Bob Hoffman and Jeff Schomberg, Nicasio, CA
Chasing the American Dream, by Hedy Siroco, Wynnewood PA
DreamYourTopia Checkpoint (also at ePlaya), by DADARA, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Drum Wagons, by Quill Hyde, Brooklyn NY
Elevation, by Michael Christian, Berkeley, CA
Elevation is a fully climbable sculpture constructed of winding tube steel ladders that elevate to a seated perch for one, on its peak. The height of the piece will be 56 feet.
Fleeble Flobbler, by Charlie Smith and Jaime Laudet, Atlanta, GA
Free Flight, by David Boyer, Reno NV
“Free Flight” is a sculpture that celebrates the ultimate freedom, the escape from the bounds of earth. Consisting of six wind-driven kinetic birds, this sculpture is in constant flux as the winds of the Black Rock grow, recede, shift and change.
Hand of Man, by Christian Ristow, Taos, New Mexico
Harmonic Geometry, by Glenn Easley and Rikk Carey, Vashon, WA
glenn.Easley at gmail.com
Hydrogen Economy, by False Profit Labs, San Francisco, CA
Illusion, by Benson Trent, Provo, UT
Ketchup, by Bruce Bender, Marshall, NC
Legends of America, by James Cole, Auburn, CA
Lepidodgera, by Rachel Norman, Mike Thielvoldt, Lira Filippini, and Jake Haskell, Palo Alto, CA
Man Gwyn Man Draw?, by Defaid Daf a Joe, Wales
McEnlightenment, by Michael Brown and Violet McKeon, San Diego, CA
Mutopia, by the Flaming Lotus Girls, San Francisco, CA
Net Work, by David Bengali, New York, NY
Nowhere Ominibus, by Pete Johnson, London, UK
Pictures of You – Images from Iran, by Yechdosay Chahar, Crested Butte, CO
Pool, by Jen Lewin, Boulder, CO
Popaver Rubrum Giganticum, by Gary Miller, Wyndmoor, PA
Popaver rubrum giganteum (giant red poppy) consists of three hundred 10′ tall poppies in various shades of red. The design allows for variation in the layout and placement of the individual elements.
Pswarm (PDF), by the Dept. of Spontaneous Combustion, Oakland, CA
Pyrocardium, by False Profit Labs, San Francisco, CA
Shiva Vista, by Dave King, Reno, NV
Shrine of Fortuna, by Art Farm, Graton, CA
Shrine to the Oven Mitt, by Steven Goodman, Mountain View, CA
Spaghetti West Ten, by the Mutoid Waste Co., London, UK
A 12′ long, by 15′ tall motorized apocalyptic horse, part beast, part rust-ravaged machine, pulls a punked-out parody of a pioneer’s covered wagon, which contains a stage for musical acts and performance.
Swarm, by Michael Prados, San Francisco, CA
Tantalus, by Peter Hudson, San Francisco, CA
Tantalus is Peter’s fourth large scale zoetrope. Participants must engage a laboriously intense mechanism that puts a modern spin on the myth of Tantalus while reflecting on the seemingly dwindling fruits of such labor.
The Cave, by Chassy Cleland and Henya Emmer, New York, NY
Wheel of Thwarted Ambition, by Anton Viditz-Ward, Telluride, CO
This kinetic fire sculpture represents change, rebirth and creation. Driven by a hand crank, a wheel containing buckets of burning wood is spun around, creating a ring of fire and producing lots of fireflies.
You are All so Many of Me, by Michael Emery, Santa Cruz, CA
A multitude of small cut mirrors provides the opportunity for both literal and metaphorical reflection. During the day, the viewer perceives a cubist self-portrait smiling back. At certain points during the night this reflection will be enhanced with a variety of images projected by LCD upon the mirrors. The viewer is invited to interact with images of fire and water as well as a racial/gender spectrum of other humans. The viewer is invited to contemplate, and perhaps to help create the American Dream of FREEDOM FOR ALL.
Zsu Zsu: The Crybaby Drama Queen, by Mister Jellyfish, Sparks, NV
Who Is Zsu Zsu?
“Zsu Zsu the crybaby drama queen won’t you come play with meeee,
I built you this trailer for Burning Man so you would care for meee.”
“Zsuuu Zsu, Zsuuu Zsu… Leeeve me a geeft then go ahwey!
…Zsuuu Zsu, Zsuuu Zsu… Eetz so fuckeeng HOT.”
UPDATE - More Zsu Zsu madness
“Zsu Zsu noooo! No Zsu Zsu, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO….”
RESPECT THE ART: IF YOU DIDN’T MAKE IT, DON’T BREAK IT!!
Over the last several years, Burning Man has seen a disturbing trend growing in Black Rock City: more and more art installations are getting vandalized or damaged every year, including everything from tagging to outright destruction.
Artists work exceptionally hard to create artwork for the playa at great personal expense. Understandably, they are deeply affected when their work is destroyed or damaged … and participants who would have otherwise experienced the piece as it was intended are also affected. While some participants may see vandalism as their personal form of “radical self-expression”, ultimately, personal expression needs to be tempered by the realities of co-existing within a community, which requires mutual respect to thrive.
Please help us spread the word: if you didn’t make it, don’t break it! Help stop mindless vandalism to artwork on the playa.
Some of the artists tell their stories below, in a letter to our community from Kate Raudenbush, who created the Guardian of Eden last year. We reprint them for you here, in the hopes that their words speak more persuasively than any missive we could craft. We know that most JRS readers are unlikely to be the culprits of vandalism; we hope you will help by taking time to share in watching out for the artwork in our city.
The same folks who brought us the lovely Tasseograph Tea Temple in 2007 have received a grant to build the 2008 Temple!
The Basura Sagrada (”sacred trash”) is a recycled trash project and they are looking for materials donations as well as elbow grease.
March 8, 2008 - 8PM-4AM - 21+ w/ID
At: The Whisper Ultra Lounge
535 Florida St., between 18th St. and Mariposa St. SF
View map
$15 Playa finery; $25 Street clothes
Happy Hour Drink Specials from 8p-10p with early bird treats!
Food service available Whisper’s Back Room Bistro!
More info at Burning Man Special Events.
Found this little story on the LAist news site. It mentions Jack Haye as the co-illustrator of the “Man” structure for “The American Dream” theme of Burning Man 2008.
Jack’s a wonderful chap whom I know well. He’s the co-owner of the amazing art and kitschy culture boutique known as Heebe Jeebe in Petaluma, CA (also known as Boomerang Gallery for the many underground local artist shows he and his wife, Drew Washer, hold there each year… check my Sonoma ArtCast local art tribe for gallery pictures from a number of shows I’ve documented there).
Jack also has been building portions of the Man structure for, I think, some 10 years. Recently, he’s been directing the fabrication of the large lanterns surrounding the Man (not the lamplighter ones that spoke out into the Playa). Jack is also chummy with David Best of the many Temples fame and has dabbled a bit on those projects too as far as I know. Jack’s a Burning Man hero (and mine too)!
Here’s the article in full:
LAist: Burning Man Reveals the New “Man”
Burning Man has revealed the design for the new Man. The design was created by Larry Harvey and Rod Garrett, and illustrated by Jack Haye and Rod Garrett, and will be the centerpiece of the Burning Man Arts Festival in the Black Rock Desert. The American Dream is the theme to this year’s festival.
This year’s Burning Man will be the tallest ever, and will stand on top of a four-story obelisk. The monument will be draped with flags of countries from all over the world. Inside the obelisk, a double-helix like strand will create a spiral staircase that will resemble DNA. The “Man” will be burned on Burn Night on Saturday, August 30th.
The Burning Man Festival takes place on August 25th to September 1st 2008. Tickets for Burning Man will go on sale on January 16th, please remember there will be NO tickets available at the gate, tickets must be purchased before the event.
Got something interesting rumbling beneath them goggles? Suck @ CliffyPop
