Nov 19 2015

Burners Ascending to Prominence in the Art World

Art Basel in Miami is coming up in a couple of weeks (Dec 3-6). Many Burners love to attend this event, and more and more Burner artists are exhibiting their work there. In 2015, there will be 267 galleries from 32 countries in the official show.

This year things are going to the next level for glowy- blinky- flamey- mobile- popup- UV- trippy- art (or whatever you want to call this genre…), with more than a dozen Burner artists teaming up to display their works in an air-conditioned warehouse filled with art cars.

Burner Stoke says:

Edge Art Fair is open to the public from 12:00 pm – 12:00 am each day. Its located in an air conditioned warehouse located at 1584 NW 29th St, Miami, 33142 just on the Edge of Wynwood.

Although this is our first year our artists have spent over 100 years combined at the Burning Man arts festival in Nevada and we are bringing that look and feel to Basel.

Yarrow Mazzetti (cofounder of the fair) is the most prolific mutant vehicle builder in the world having transformed 26 cars into mutant vehicles. Our ladybuggies (type of mutant vehicle but consider it mobile street art) will be at the fair. Yarrow will also be unveiling two new pieces for the first time. The first are his series of Jellyfish which are 3 – 10 foot tall fiberglass shell jellyfish embedded with LEDs and Fiberoptics that change color to the music… He is also unveiling his “Nails” piece which are 8 foot long nails which will eventually form a major part of his street art.

JROC will be unveiling his 9 foot tall stainless steel dragon head.

Kenny Ferron – will be installing two LED music sensitive palm trees.

Samantha Scott – will be live painting models in blacklight paint. As she dresses all in black all you will be see from afar is a paintbrush glowing in blacklight paint – painting the model. Her photographs of models she has painted are for sale. If someone want to prebuy their piece they can participate in the painting of the model.

Richie Driscoll will be coming from LA to install his Chain Man piece. Chain man lives in an interactive chain land which the artist will build. Think adult version of a playground.

Peter Ruprecht and Tomas Loewy are two of the most successful photographers who amongs other areas have consistently shot Burning Man and so the entire walls of the warehouse will be covered in black material – with spot lights illuminating Tomas and Peter’s photographs.

Jeff Silver will be unveiling his light sandbox – which is an interactive sandbox built five feet of the ground. When you move your hand through the sand the lines you created illuminate by the LED lights which have been placed underneath.

When Hurricane Sandy took out power to Lower Manhattan, the Lady Buggies were one of the few things still glowing off in the Meatpacking District

dragon miami

I also hear that crowd favorite Rob Buchholz will be exhibiting some of his work in Miami this year.

rob buchholz staples center

We support Burner art getting out into the wider world. It seems this sort of thing is how we take Burner culture to millions of people – more so than going on Dr Phil and Oprah with the message “hey, are you grieving? Come to our Temple, and be sure to make a non-deductible $419 donation to our tax-exempt corporate structure on the way in” – like some sort of Discordian televangelist. Or going on The Simpsons with “hey you can drop acid blue-haired Mom like it’s the 60s all over again and rekindle the romance with your husband”. This is bringing a caricaturized view of our culture to people who really could care less about the art and participation, and just want to be spectators. They may or may not have a good time, but how is it changing the world? Meanwhile, art is changing the world, always has been, always will be.

Bringing Burner art into the mainstream and high end of the art world is ultimately going to impact many, many more people than the Burning Man Project’s plans of panel discussions and preaching to the converted. What’s it all about, the art? Or the preaching? We need to be kicking down the doors for these artists, helping elevate them to the highest levels possible, and supporting them when public controversy is stirred – as with Marco Cochrane’s recent installation of Truth Is Beauty which has been causing disquiet on a $200 million tech campus.

If Burning Man is the Special Olympics of art, Art Basel is the Olympics. The association with the Burner world may not be the same stamp of credibility in Miami as it is in San Francisco’s Mission District. Regardless, sold out shows send a strong message, so please help support these Burner artists. If you’re anywhere near Art Basel this year, check this out, tell your friends.

Here is their flyer:

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Check out Kenny Ferron’s SubSqwad at the Alchemy Burn in Georgia:

Oct 24 2015

Video

2015 Stop-Motion Animation [Update]

Thanks to Peter Ruprecht of Ruprecht Studios for putting together another amazing stop-motion animation. Music by The Scumfrog. Peter created this from more than 22,000 still photographs that he took this year. He says:

“I left it full length so people can use it as a set they listen to by Scumfrog and have visual eye candy behind it”

Enjoy…

Apparently the YouTube one works better on mobile:

[Update 10/25/15 11:43pm]

This video has got a lot of Likes and Shares on Facebook, but has drawn a small amount of criticism here and there. Some Burnier-Than-Thous complained that the people in it are too good looking and not dusty enough. I mean, really? That’s next on the Ban list, hot people? Well, according to burningman.com for the last few years they have been actively trying to get fewer celebrities to attend. That hasn’t really worked out very well, given The Simpsons, Katy Perry, Oprah and Dr Phil. So who could they want to ban next…?

The idea that the way to make Burning Man better is to promote uglier Burners sounds ludicrous to me. But some seem to feel very earnest about it.

Anyway, here is a response from the artist:

…its sad to see yet another comment disparaging the “art” being created about experiences on the playa…i believe i have an opinion about this piece that merits attention..since this is the video I created. … i am going to use that liberty and write …well until i feel i have written enough of a response to yet ANOTHER unfounded statement by righteous people…

Lets get a few things cleared up here…as far as the video goes…THERE IS FAR MORE TIME TO EVERYTHING OTHER THAN PEOPLE POSING THAN ANYTHING ELSE….but now that you have attacked me by attacking what i have made i feel inclined to respond…AS a photographer that is known for taking photos at Burning Man, my work and my motives have been challenged and scrutinized many times over the years. Any negativity I have received over the years was continually due to the “type of woman or man” I would display in my photographs.

I have been accused of only photographing beautiful people. That all had to come to an end as I started to make my “Playa Gift Photo Shoots” for anyone to come and be photographed more publicly known.

I have gone out of my way to “give back” and give ANYONE the ability to come and be photographed under studio lights on the playa in the hopes that they take home a treasured memory that captures them in a nicer light than their cell phones will allow.

I have also NEVER said no to anyone who has asked for a photo and asked for my email other than RUDE people.

Beautiful girls or boys are NOT the problem. Uneducated, uninspired, lazy, entitled, conformist and mean people are the problem. To tell anyone to mind their behavior at burning man because it might be misconstrued since they are pretty is LUDICROUS. The only thing we have to curb are MEAN, shallow, entitled attitudes but some times worse…RIGHTEOUS ATTITUDES.

And the BEST thing we can do is inspire those people to become better people. Maybe teach one of these “wallflowers” YOU COMPLAIN ABOUT that they can create art, that it is liberating to be inspired. I feel much more sorry for the “wallflower” that doesn’t “Get” burning man than the “average looking” person that gets it and is sharing in the playa magic.

Human Beauty has been idolized since the DAWN of man. Were the greeks and romans wrong to sculpt the way they did. Should Michael angelo have made the david look fat? Should the venus demilo be regarded as an affront on our Burning Man Culture because its proportioned in an aesthetically pleasing manner?
Simply preposterous.

I think everyone should stop worrying SOOOO MUCH about the people around them and focus on their own shortcomings and work on those.

WE ALL HAVE them.

The righteous judgment should be sidelined and if critique is to be made, make it specifically on the issue, NOT on the generalizations that lump people into groups like “the beautiful people” or the “ugly people”

Make the groups something that can be representative of your interactions with them. The nice people, the inclusive people, the inquisitive people, the shallow people, the mean people, the entitled people.

AND THEN DO YOUR BEST TO HELP THOSE LATTER TRY AND GET IT!

Oh yeah one other thing pretty much everyone I photographed close up. Is a personal friend. And I know and see them off of the playa. So you are right it’s not representative of the playa. It’s MY experience on the playa with my real friends. And honestly you DONT know them to judge them. And quite frankly you shouldn’t judge at all. But you have already passed judgement of this piece as having to conform into some form of a documentary. For you to be ok with it this video HAS to include some arbitrary group of strangers Iso that includes some arbitrary 98% For you to deem it worthy of existing. Guess what. It’s not a documentary. It never was. It was simply my burn experience through my camera. No one asked you to like it And as a matter of fact you are welcome to hate it. Hate it because it sucks. Hate it because the photos are terrible. Hate it because you hate my point of view. But please spare me the tired argument that it’s not authentic or real because it doesn’t include he people YOU want to see in it and only your concept is authentic. And the saddest thing of all is if all you saw are hot girls.

You missed the best parts of the video. Which are the sunsets. For your own piece of mind. Here is what I wrote about those and what they mean to me:

I am often asked what my favorite part of burning man is. I try and explain to people, that, while it is an amazing party, my favorite times have been during the blessings the universe has sent me while completely ALONE on the playa.
There have been several moments now over the years when i have felt a bolt of electricity curse through my body, knock the wind out of me, and reduce me to my knees shuddering pools of tears.
Bringing me to the realization that i am in the presence of UNIVERSAL LOVE, GOD, ENERGY, HUMANITY, NOTHING, EVERYTHING, you take your pick, BUT, there is something out there definitely palpable and communicating with us.
I am a photographer and every year i find myself in a situation where i look at what is happening in front of me and via nature, not our LEDs or music or sounds or parties or friends, but nature’s simple beauty knocking me over and bringing me to tears.
While i sat looking at the sky, it was all i could do but lift my camera through the tears i shed for the beauty that was presented to me and snap a few shots. I looked around during this sunset expecting to see ALL of burning manas professionals out there with tripods getting FAR better representations of GOD painting the skies for us, and once again i found my self COMPLETELY ALONE. OFF of the 10 o’clock side at the trash fence.
This was on wednesday at the end of the dust storms, and it was me and one jester looking like completely naked german woman maybe of 60 years. She was jumping up and down in circles thanking the heavens laughing hysterically and drawing a circle in the ground which she sat in and kissed the playa. While she looked completely out of her mind, she looked at me ran up and wiped the tears of of my face, so i realized that there was really no difference between laughter and crying. Both opposite ends of the spectrum on a circle touching each other.
We both sat there in complete silence in her circle and i kissed the playa with her, reminded that the universe provides FAR more than we can create by ourselves. For there is no BY OUR SELVES. we are within the universe and the universe is with us. Neither exists without the other. This photo is dedicated the the stange german woman who helped me raise my camera and shoot some of my favorite photos of the burn. Here are two…ill post more as i get to them and give them the love and attention they deserve
Thank you wherever and whoever you are!

Aug 12 2015

Photographer Gifts Playa Portraits

Wear your best pinks. New York based graphic artist Peter Ruprecht and some multi-award winning Toronto video producers are gifting his art on the Playa. Join the Facebook event if you’re interested in participating.

Enough people have been asking me to shoot them on the playa that i have decided once again to do a fully studio lit photoshoot on the playa for anyone one to come get shot as a playa gift. Sign up here so i kind of get any idea how many to accommodate …or just show up on playa….either way come get photographed. Just come in white. It will be at Dragonfly Den on 10 and C Thursday at sunset just before their Pink Party.
https://www.facebook.com/events/149464662065815/