Welcome to the last Flipside Flame before heading out on land this year. This issue is primarily focused on the fabulous art pieces you will find on the pecan playa. Lots of good stuff here! Read on to treat your eyeballs to visual deliciousness. Be art installation savvy for your time at Flipside 2019: Sisyphean Celebration!

For more information, stay tuned to:

As a reminder, if you’re looking to contribute to Flame or Announce, please use the Flipside Flame/Announce Submission page. This will allow you to add a Public Domain or personal photograph to your BurningFlipside.com post. If you’re looking to add announcements to Announce or Flame for the first half of 2019, the following deadlines will apply:

June:

Announce – June 1, 2019
Flame – June 15, 2019

Your Content Lead,
~Erica~

What is in this Flame

Art Projects are Still Seeking Support!
Flipside 2019 Art Spotlight
- Big Top Mountain
- The Glitterbox
- The Forge of Hephaestus
- Lines of Flight
- Sophie
- Rejuvenation Chamber
- The Beat

Important Dates

May 23, 2019: Burning Flipside

For more information on how to be involved year around, check out the Burning Flipside Calendar.

Art Projects are Still Seeking Support!

Are you feeling philanthropic these days? Check out the Art Projects Seeking Support Page! It’s a community bulletin board where artists can ask for assistance making their art project go. While we are a week out, I guarantee that our artists wouldn’t mind some extra cash thrown their way. Find out what projects need some love here.

Flipside 2019 Art Spotlight

Welcome to the 3rd annual Flipside Art Spotlight blog series! These are designed to bring some well-deserved attention to a pretty dang important part of our community and event: ART and the badass talents that create them! Flipside without the art would be a bunch of bored people in a field. These will be posted in the order received until the event.

Thank you, thank you for all your passion, ambition, love and sweat!

Please note: This is not the full list of art projects heading to the playa and additional posts will appear on BurningFlipside.com. Keep an eye out for more!

Big Top Mountain

What inspired you to create this art piece?

It came down to the Theme. I truly believe that the Theme for a burn is essential and matters way more than some do. It legitimately inspired this piece. A “Sisyphean Celebration” put me in the mind set of “unwinnable/unattainable” goals But also a fun aspect of it. My mind immediately thought, Carnival games. Truly unwinnable. Well, where do you have carnival games? A big top tent. The ball kept rolling in my head to the point of having a ramp along side of it and a“Sisyphus” rolling a ball up he ramp and before it burns, the ball rolls back down and the whole thing catches fire. [Read more here.]

The Glitterbox

The Glitter box (formerly the light box) was featured for several years at LumiNation. Visiting the luminarium structure inspired the light box. Initially, and for a few years, the lights were white blinky string lights with rows of CD’s behind them and refractive glasses for added effect. It’s a small, mellow space where people can transcend the mud and craziness and experience a moment of wonder, encircled by light. [Continue your discovery of this project here.]

The Forge of Hephaestus

The Forge of Hephaestus draws inspiration from a lot of places, but primarily from the allegorically dense theme of the burn this year, Sisyphean Celebration. Greek mythology is really rich with ideas and characters, many of which Sisyphus interacted with in one way or another. We chose Hephaestus, the god of Fire (sculpture, metalworking, masonry, and forges) because he was a patron of the arts and a bit of an odd duck. Of all the Greek pantheon, Hephaestus and Dionysus (wine, fertility, ‘ritual madness’) would perhaps have appreciated Flipside the most! [Get to know this project a bit more.]

Lines of Flight

What inspired you to create this art piece?

Last year Unbroken Spring, the Houston regional burn, was offering art grants and the art lead encouraged me to apply because they were familiar with some of my origami work and knew i had ideas about translating it into large scale sculpture. Lines of Flight was my first attempt at playing with scale using the form of an origami dove, chosen for both its aesthetic grace, simplicity, and reproduction ease. [View more pictures of this project on this post!]

Sophie

Are there any stories/lessons learned that came out of the creation of this piece?

I’ve learned a lot of safety lessons over the years, working in metal. Eye protection, ear protection, leather gloves. Nothing loose around your neck, an angle grinder could strangle you if your scarf gets caught in it. Bandana, I value the little bit of hair I have and burning hair smells awful. Always with the heavy closed shoes, pant cuffs *over* the tops of the boots, never tucked in, etc. I do have a bad habit of working in short sleeves (it gets hot in a metal shop in Texas, yo)…got the scars on my arms to prove it. Overall this was an enjoyable, comfortably paced work. The most annoying part was rethinking an aspect that was a PITA to change after the fact, it would have been so easy to do before it got “caged in” by the skinning. [There is so much more…]

Rejuvenation Chamber

What do you hope people get out of your piece?

The sun is down. You had a great day so far at the Flipside. Maybe you are a bit tired from all the wonderful interactions you had during the busy day? And the night is young! Music blasting from multiple directions, bright lights blinking everywhere. Or it’s way after midnight and your senses are a bit overstimulated and you are debating with yourself whether you are too tired to keep going? This is the time to visit the Rejuvenation Chamber!

As you step inside the enclosure, you find yourself in a beautiful tranquil space. The Rejuvenation Chambers you see there offer you the sensory deprivation experience which reduces stress, calms the nervous system, and helps one to enter a deep state of relaxation. After the overwhelming day you had so far, this sounds amazing, so when the attendant invites you to climb in, you decide to give it a try!

If this sounds interesting to you, please read on here.

The Beat

What inspired me?

This installation is inspired by the authors that shaped my worldview as a young seeker. The ideas and items presented capture my fascination with the archetype of “the writer”. Sometimes lonely, usually tormented and always a voice that defies and challenges. I have created this desk as an alter to that romanticized figure in my mind.

[I know you’re curious to learn about this piece…]