Translator: Julie Walker Reviewer: Denise RQ
I was scared.
No, no. Actually, I was terrified.
I was sitting in a car, my seatbelt fastened,
heading towards a festival known for its light, its art, its fire.
Fire - something so powerful, so primeval, and it was everywhere.
Fire all the way around me, and I could not escape.
It was terrifying,
and I wanted to escape so badly, - like right now -
but yes...
I want to talk to you a little bit about fire, the different natures of fire,
the visceral, the innocent, the powerful, and the reverence.
Visceral - fire truly is visceral.
Fire is alive.
It talks directly to that lizard brain that we have that says fight or flight.
For me, it was flight, but I couldn't.
There's something about fire that captivates us.
If you think about fire, think back to when you've sat in front of a campfire
or a time when you've relaxed in front of a fireplace,
or, like me, you're confronted with 300-foot-tall fire cannons.
In an instant, everything disappears, and you're lost in the purity of now,
just in that instant,
and everything seems to disappear - everything.
What comes to mind is some realizations
that may have never had come to mind before,
but your mind unwinds, relaxes, and goes into that place.
Nate Smith, an artist from Utah, decided to do a 'small' fire piece.
He ignited 400 gallons of gasoline in an instant.
It was unbelievable.
The fire, the light - as exploded in the sky.
For me, it was like an atomic bomb had blown up.
The fire - you felt it rolling up and down your body.
Your brain is screaming in this primeval language,
to run, to escape, to save yourself.
I turned away from the fire.
I was scared while thousands of other people actually leaned in.
They leaned in to capture more of that fire,
that heat as it rolled up their bodies.
They leaned in to capture more of the heat, the light, and the chaos.
For me, it was an on-the-spot epiphany.
All of a sudden, the instinct
that actually had me turn away from the fire,
actually changed to one of glee and joy.
The danger was still there with the fire, obviously,
But, I was able to really enjoy the burn, to be able to see.
As I saw the flames go against the sky
and felt the fire rolling up and down my body,
I could take that moment to actually enjoy what was happening,
the beauty, the creativity of the burn.
Childlike - fire, in a lot of ways, is childlike.
Think of a young girl playing with a sparkler;
the laughter and the joy she has as she twirls it along the dark sky,
and then look at El Pulpo Mecanico.
This is a gigantic, mechanized octopus spitting fire from its tentacles
as it rolls across the playa.
People flock from hundreds of feet around to come to it.
They clamor for it, they laugh, they scream.
When they see the different tentacles move and spit fire,
and you can start hear the pop-pop-pop! of the propane jets,
it reminds you, in a lot of ways,
almost like a child's toy, a wind-up, oversized child's toy, wound up,
set on fire, and let go, and you see its tentacles move.
It glides across the playa; the laughter of the joy that you feel.
It's being like a child again.
Also this joy, this sense of a game,
again, when you see this beautiful octopus with its tentacles undulating
as it slides across the playa toward you.
It's one of those things that really stays with you.
Fire, in a lot of ways, also can be very playful
as it plays and explodes around you.
One of my favorites has always been dance, dance emulation.
So, hopefully, you guys are familiar with the game Dance Dance Revolution,
where people dance.
We did it in a whole different way.
We took it to a whole other level.
We had somebody in a silver fire suit
trying to reproduce dance moves they saw projected on a screen.
If they missed one step,
there was fire spitting into their face up to 6 feet all the way around them.
(Video starts)
(Video ends)
Looks like fun, doesn't it?
(Laughter)
There's also a real power to fire,
and nothing captures it more than the Serpent Mother.
Serpent Mother is a 100-foot metal snake
that's coiled around to protect its flaming egg.
It writhes, it moves, it looks at you, but you control the power.
You have the power of the fire, just pushing the buttons right there.
When you feel the power, you push the buttons,
and you see the lights dance across the sky,
it gives you that sense of what it would be like
to actually master this primeval element,
this tool that, at one point, was there just to frighten,
then to protect, and now exists to amuse us.
Or Crude Awakening:
nine steel figures, two floors each high in different prayer positions,
all focus on a 300-foot-tall oil derrick.
Their different expressions, their movements seem
to really show the praise, the devotion, the promise
that we have tied into--
how we're dependent on natural gas and fuel.
The unbelievable alignment of reverence this has with these figures praying
to this tall, huge, dominating tower that looms over them.
It really calls forth the idea of our ties, our dependency,
making it look
like we're praising our dependency on natural resources.
When the oil derrick blew up like a nuclear bomb,
it looked like the figures, all of a sudden, were freed.
They were liberated. They actually were set free from the fire.
Fire can also express emotion,
express an emotion in such a way
that can't really be captured by mere words or form in a lot of ways.
Fire can, in an instance of a second, establish a connection
and actually put together a meme that can excite and influence you.
Church Trap was a simple structure built up to look like a church.
It was up on one end like an old-fashioned mousetrap,
one where anybody walking by could feel the enticement to engage,
to go inside, to be part of it.
And it was through the fire
that we actually were able to release it into the darkened sky.
Fire can liberate us; it can free us,
take us away from those ideas, those beliefs you hold tightly,
so tight that we don't even, we can't even understand how much it holds onto us.
It also can burn into our minds.
The instance of the fire can give you that second.
It's stronger than anything.
In an instant, you can actually have memes and things burnt in, and beliefs,
letting go of beliefs you may have had, you held so tight before,
but now released into the flame.
Sometimes, there're some people who say, "How can you burn the arts?"
"How can you actually look at the arts? So much goes into it."
They cry, they feel actually despondent when they see things go in the fray,
but it's through the fire that we're all freed.
In 2011, we actually put a call out across the globe, asking for artists
to create effigies that represented themselves and represented their region.
In three years of our art program, we had over 50 art groups answer our call.
Building wooden structures about 20 feet tall,
they represented their regions, and how they saw themselves.
It was everything from a lobster trap from Maine, birds in flight from Lithuania
a hamsa from Israel, and even a beer stein from the Czech Republic.
These artists toil, they worked hard to create these installations
to truly have them represent themselves.
When they all burned simultaneously,
at the same time, against the darkened sky,
you could hear the roar of excitement,
the joy as it echoed throughout Black Rock City.
For some, not used to burning their art, it can feel a little traumatizing.
You spent so much time, so much effort, so much money to build this effigy
that with just the flick of a torch, can disappear.
Some think that this may actually reduce its impact, its importance it has on us.
But actually, in truth, the time
the flames actually come and go against the night sky,
and it's reflected in the eyes and the bodies of the people
who get to be part of that burn,
they can be inspired, and they can be influenced
with memories that may have never existed before.
Some people cry; some people really cry
when they see the art going, something so beautiful disappearing,
while others laugh joyously.
I can't tell you how many times I've been asked, "How can you burn the Man?"
We say, "We burn him so we can build him again next year."
Reverence -
Lastly, there's a reverence to fire.
It's one of those most primordial elements.
Originally, cave men huddled around it for protection.
Those in other cultures and communities,
actually take those before them and send them off in a funeral pyre.
For us, the temple is the most sacred place on playa.
It's a place where people bring treasured items for loved ones,
capturing memories, emotion, putting it within the temple,
and Sunday night, when it all goes up in flame, we are released.
It's a solemn moment. It's one that's almost indescribable;
how quiet, how emotional it can be.
It's one of the calmest and most powerful times on playa.
(Video starts)
(Video ends)
Burning Man started in Nevada,
but its flames have actually crossed the whole globe.
And every year, related events, - more than 60 each year -
at their very heart have fire.
I invite you to embrace your fear, to embrace fire,
because through embracing this fear, you release yourselves; you're freed.
Come burn with us.
Thank you.
(Applause)
(Cheers)
Thank you.
(Applause)