Linda Gass at the De Young

Black Rock Arts Foundation Advisory Board Member, Linda Gass is speaking at the DeYoung Museum tonight. Linda spoke at our exciting Elemental Interactions Evening: WATER!, and we found her to be a passionate, entertaining speaker.

Friday Nights at the De Young
Koret Auditorium
7:00 p.m.

Lecture: “Radical Self-Expression: The Costumes of Burning Man,” by Linda Gass, who makes art informed by her activist passions. As an artist, she hopes to use the lure of beauty in her work to encourage people to look at the hard issues confronting us.

Thanks to Janet Scheuer and Melissa Alexander for this suggestion

photo: Rob Steiner

Serpent Mother and Homouroboros

Serpent Mother at Opulent Temple's "Massive" on Friday Night photo: poetrosakranse

Serpent Mother: photo by eeetthaannn

The Monkeys were on break but it was great to see them, we have missed you Homouroboros

It was great to see Serpent Mother and Homouroboros in their current home!

prior posts:

http://blackrockarts.blogspot.com/search/label/Serpent%20Mother

http://blackrockarts.blogspot.com/search/label/homouroboros

MAKE Blogging BRAF's 2009 Grant Program

2008 Grantee Recipient - Primal Source

Our friends over at MAKE Magazine have included a shout out about our 2009 Grant Application Deadline, which is March 13, 2009.

So check it out and thanks so much from our blog to yours...

For more information about 2009 Grants to Artists Program: http://www.blackrockarts.org/grants/2009-grant-cycle

Previous posts: http://blackrockarts.blogspot.com/2009/01/braf-2009-grant-cycle-opening-soon.html

Homouroboros - The Monkeys are Back

Have you been missing the Monkeys, I know I have. It is almost spring and time for a visit from Homouroboros. So I hear they will be making a special appearance at Opulent Temple Massive this Friday Night at Treasure Island:

http://www.opulenttemple.org/archives/000138.php

Opulent Temple Massive
9pm-4am
200 California Ave
Treasure Island
San Francisco, CA



previous posts: http://blackrockarts.blogspot.com/search/label/homouroboros
photo: Cherry Lakey

Meet our Grantees - Serpent Mother

The ‘Serpent Mother' is taking over Treasure Island. Serpent Mother is a 168-foot long metal sculpture of a skeletal snake coiled around her egg. Propane fed fire travels the length of her spine, erupting in 41 ‘poofers’ at the top of each hand-fabricated vertebrae. Her articulated head reaches a height f 30-foot and her hydraulically activated jaws open and close based on participant interaction. The space she creates with her coiled form can accommodate over 1,000 people.

Originally created for Burning Man 2006, in 2007 the Black Rock Arts Foundation provided a grant to help Serpent Mother travel for exhibition at both the Crucible’s 'Fire Arts Festival’ in Oakland, CA July 11 – 14, 2007 and Amsterdam’s international art and technology festival, Robodock 2007. The grant from the Black Rock Arts Foundation was designed to help cover modification costs incurred to meet exhibition requirements. The ‘Serpent Mother,’ created by The Flaming Lotus Girls, an artist’s collective conceived to teach women metal arts, defines the cutting edge of fire and kinetic art and the Black Rock Arts Foundation was proud to be a part of the endeavor to share this spectacular sculpture with new audiences. And now....

Serpent Mother Takes Over Treasure Island!

What: Serpent Mother Art Opening

When: Friday march 6th all night and
Saturday, March 7th 2009 7pm-midnight

Where: 200 California Ave., Treasure Island, San Francisco, CA, 94130

Links: Flaming Lotus Girls

The Flaming Lotus Girls transform Treasure Island into a reptilian wilderness with their first ever public installation of their interactive, kinetic sculpture, a magnificent installation of a 168' skeletal stainless steel snake. Serpent Mother will rear her giant head on the Island for the weekend of Friday and Saturday, March 6th and 7th 2009.

On Friday March 6th, the Serpent commands the floor at an all-night party hosted by Opulent Temple and featuring the world-famous DJ Carl Cox.

On Saturday March 7th, the Serpent will light up the Bay in a fun and free art exhibition from 7PM-midnight.

Come see for yourself: there has never been a sculpture like the Serpent Mother. Her 168' long stainless steel spine coils around the massive space, while her 20' long neck and massive head tower over her audience. The audience takes control, however, by directing her movement, raising her hydraulically-actuated neck and opening her fanged mouth. Full audience participation makes each installation a singular experience - come make it happen.

The Flaming Lotus Girls The Flaming Lotus Girls are a female-driven group of artists making kinetic, mechanical fire art. Their mission is to create monumental works of interactive art through a collaborative process. Their vision is to empower women to learn new skills and become experienced, talented and active artists in their own right. In the past they have premiered their work at Burning Man and then bring the pieces to a civic audience afterwards. Their work is a combination of sculptural arts, kinetics, robotics, electronics, and fire engineering - is designed collaboratively; made collaboratively. They create interactive large-scale fire installations that engages viewers and invite them to become part of the art. For over 9 years, the Flaming Lotus Girls have presented installations nationally and internationally. interactive fire sculptures inspired by the Pleiades constellation.

For more information, please visit their website at:
Flaming Lotus Girls

*Serpent Mother Art Opening*
Saturday March 7th 2009
7pm-midnight
200 California Ave
Treasure Island, San Francisco, CA,


Photo © Tristan Savatier - All Rights Reserved

Meet our Grantees - Sanlun Yishu

We have just heard from another of our 2008 grant recipients, Sanlun Yishu, by artists Lee Somers and Elisabeth Pellathy in Beijing, China.

The original description of the project:

三san (three) 轮lun (wheel) 车che (vehicle) – a versatile, cheap and compact tricycle made from modified motorcycles or bicycles.

Small yet mighty, the workhorse of Beijing moves everything from lumber to passengers. Often employed as a low-budget local taxi.

三san (three) 轮lun (wheel) 艺术yishu (art) – a mobile gallery, a custom-made Sanlun che housing an exhibition of print, drawing, sound, and video selected specifically for this context.

The primary function is to facilitate personal interaction with art for an audience outside the scope of the traditional gallery. Shifting art viewing from a passive to active interface with the community, Sanlun Yishu overlays an art-experience with daily transportation. Artists from around the globe will create works themed on urban life for the mobile gallery.

Passengers will become participants, asked to reflect on their identity in our urban world. Instead of paying a fare, participants take a work of art with them and make a creative contribution of their own. This transaction is the basis of a conversation between artists and passengers, examining urban life from multiple perspectives, forging unlikely connections across the globe.

And we recenlty heard from Elisabeth and Lee:

Please find attached somerecent pics of the project out on the streets. We have been keeping busy with this project! The pictures show Lee out driving it - which he does sometimes. It gathers a lot of interest because we wrote"mian fei cheng zuo" or "free to ride" on the window.

This is the first point of interest for many people - so far it seems well recieved and the feedback box inside is filling....Talk more soon.

Best regards,
Elisabeth and Lee

We look forward to more updates from the Sanlun Yishu mobile interactive installation which is creating "three wheeled art" in Beijing.

March 3, 2009: You will notice a comment below from artist Pete Nawara. The painting Woman with a Pearl Necklace
( http://www.petenawara.com/woman-with-a-pearl-necklace/ ) is on the side of Sanlun Yishu. Pete, we are thrilled to hear from you and your work is beautiful!
http://www.petenawara.com/

Meet Our Grantees - Ocean Beach Fire Pits

We got this note from one of our 2008 Grant Recipients the Ocean Beach Fire Pits - Rebecca Anders, Yasmin Mawaz-Khan and Charles Gadeken, San Francisco, California:

We are proud and happy to report that the Ocean Beach Fire Pits project, so generously supported by BRAF in 2008, is complete. As you know, Charlie and his crew installed their beautiful fourth Sea Star this past summer, and yesterday the fourth Firebloom successfully made it to its new permanent home on Ocean Beach!

We are so grateful for the grant support from the Black Rock Arts Foundation.

Congratulations on another successful public art installation, and thanks so much for everything!

Rebecca Anders

The experience of building a fire at the ocean’s edge is as old as human time, and a much-beloved ritual on the San Francisco coastline. Ocean Beach Fire Pits are locally made sculptural fire pits made from cast concrete or recycled steel and designed to succeed in the harsh and extreme beach environment. Taking the form of Sea Stars and Fireblooms these beautifully crafted, unique objects provide a valuable and accessible site of public interaction and connection. Already a success among the San Francisco community, the intentional welcoming aspect of the fire pits draw people together and encourage engagement between a diverse cross-section of beach visitors and the surrounding landscape.

In 2007 the San Francisco Parks Department wanted to ban fires on Ocean Beach and these fire pits were a component of convincing the Parks Department to continue to allow the fires.

We are proud to have been supporters of this project and are thrilled to see it completed.

To learn more about the controversy that fires on Ocean Beach engendered and the involvement of our sister organization, check these out:

Burners Without Borders

Ocean Beach Fire Pits on CBS5

Prior Posts: http://blackrockarts.blogspot.com/2008/07/come-out-to-dept.html

Reporting in on Elemental Interactions - WATER

Zach Rukstela, Harley Dubois, David Zetland, Linda Gass, Henry Kaiser and our very own BRAF Executive Director Tomas McCabe

In this, the last of our Elemental Interactions series, our guests spoke on the topic of 'Water'. We brought together an eclectic mix of speakers, artists, scientists, social historians and others from our extended community and beyond. They speakers educated, entertained and enlightened us with facts, figures, history, economy, art and the rock and roll of water!
Our host, Harley Dubois, is a founding member of the Black Rock Arts Foundation and the Burning Man Board. Harley spoke of her personal attraction and experiences with water and then introduced our first speaker.

Our first speaker, a water economist, David Zetland, had lots of information to share with us about how water economics works now and changes that could be made to the water economics system to improve the sharing of water. He emphasized that if we went away with only one idea, it should be that water rationing doesn't work. David proposes a flat cost of water at the very first level of water usage, flat across all users, and then a steep step up in price at various levels above that flat rate, or, if you want more water, YOU SHOULD PAY A LOT MORE FOR IT.

Abendigo Reebs of LeakBird made a podcast of David's talk at BRAF, and if you want more information about David's point of view checkout his aguanomics blog.

Zachary Rukstela artist and "dad" of the Kinetic Steam Works, spoke about his love of all things "steam". Zach's vision includes supporting art like The Steampunk Treehouse and Zach looks forward to supporting artists through the use of steam.

Linda Gass makes art informed by her activist passion. She spoke of her love of nature and backpacking and how it inspires her to create her meticulously create painted silk quilts of waterways. She spoke about the history and practice of water management and how she hopes to use the lure of beauty in her work to encourage people to look at the hard issues confronting us. I especially enjoyed her discussion of the process of creating her quilts.

And then we heard from Henry Kaiser, Diver, Musician, and Cinematographer. He screened Hi-definition footage of diving under ice in the Anartica and he accompanied the footage with incredible music on his guitar. It was a wonderful way to end the evening. If you are interested in seeing more of his underwater photography, Encounters at the end of the World, is coming to the Kabuki Theatre in San Francisco in February as part of an Oscar Documentary Film Festival. We will be there, come check it out. http://www.brownpapertickets.com/producerevent/55473?prod_id=12573

We had a large enthusiastic crowd to share this delightful evening, and although it was the end of the Elemental Interaction series we look forward to spending other evening sharing art and all of its impact with you.

Loren Carpenter, Will Roger, Laura Kimpton

Josie Shimke and "Jewel" Sue Bishop

Dana Ullman hanging out with newlyweds, Frillypants and TradeMark G.

To see a few more photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/affinity23/sets/72157613434303708/

For additional information:

http://www.blackrockarts.org/events/elemental-interactions-water

Multiverse at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC

Black Rock Arts Foundation Advisory Board Member, Leo Villareal, has an amazing light sculpture at the National Gallery, Multiverse.

Multiverse, the largest and most complex light sculpture created by American artist Leo Villareal, may be seen and experienced by visitors as they pass through the Concourse walkway between the East and West Buildings of the National Gallery of Art. Commissioned by the Gallery and on view until November 2009, the work features approximately 41,000 computer-programmed LED (light-emitting diode) nodes that run through channels along the entire 200-foot-long space. The development of this LED project began in 2005, and the installation created by Villareal specifically for this location began in September 2008.

Villareal "Multiverse" National Gallery of Art, Washington DC from Walter Patrick Smith on Vimeo.
photos: Mr. T in DC

The Giving Tree - Robin Banks - Meet our Grantees

Progress on The Giving Tree

Rendering of The Giving Tree

During the 2008, Black Rock Arts Foundation Grant Cycle, we gave artist Robin Banks $8,000 to complete his installation, The Giving Tree.

The Giving Tree Project is an interactive, part wind-powered, part human-powered sculpture of a 30 foot tree. It is designed to generate it's own power by harnessing the movement of tree branches and leaves in the wind, a currently untapped source of mechanical wind energy. Participants will also be able to generate more energy in an interactive playground, by swinging on swings attached to the tree. As power is generated twofold, The Giving Tree comes alive with lights, pumping water and sound, and shows the circulatory system of the tree's xylem and phloem system within.

Globally the aim of this project is to promote the prevention of de-forestation in places where illegal lumbering is a way of survival by teaching that trees can be a valuable asset of wind energy to us if just left standing, powering rural farms and villages off the grid.

http://archaiccustoms.com/

See the debut of The Giving Tree at The Do Lab's Lucent L'Amour event, February 14, 2009 in downtown Los Angeles, Ca. http://lucentlamour.thedolab.com

BRAF 2009 Grant Cycle Opening Soon!

Primal Source
2008 Grant Recipients

Language of the Birds
2007 Grant Recipients

Emergence

2008 Grant Recipients

The Black Rock Arts Foundation is kicking off their grant cycle to fund interactive, community-based artwork OFF playa (i.e. out there in the real world).

Create interactive artwork in your hometown. Apply for a BRAF grant!

Grant giving is at the core of our mission, and at the heart of who
BRAF is. It’s always with great excitement and anticipation that we
announce the opening of our grant cycle. Our applications for 2009
grants are now available on our website.

Read more about our grant criteria and on how to apply here:

2009 BRAF Grants

Please note that we do not begin to accept applications until February
13, 2009, 9:00am, and that the deadline for submitting a proposal is
March 13, 2009, 5:00pm.

We look forward to reading about your project!

To check out prior Grantees and both their grant project and other works, please see:

http://blackrockarts.blogspot.com/search/label/Grants-to-Artists

Elemental Interactions: WATER!

In appreciation of our Members and Donors, and of the support of our community, we're pleased to bring you yet another fascinating and engaging evening of demonstrations and lectures.

This promises to be a good one! The last in our Elemental Interactions series, this evening’s guests will speak on the topic of 'Water.' We’ve brought together artists who draw inspiration from water in its many forms.

Our previous events, EARTH!, FIRE! and AIR!, were incredibly enjoyable evenings for all, full of captivating speakers and entertaining demonstrations, as well as opportunities to meet and connect with our members and donors. Join us for:

WATER!
February 5, 2009,
6:30 pm
BRAF/Burning Man offices
1900 Third Street, San Francisco, CA, 94158

Admission is free to Members, with a suggested donation of $10.00 from non-members.

Read more on our exciting guests, and see who’ve we’ve added to the bill at WATER!

Holiday Warmth in Detroit

Our woman in the street in Detroit, Doxie, tells me that before Christmas some volunteers got together at the Detroit Temple aka Detroit Dream Project, which is part of our Civic Arts Program, and was designed by BRAF board member, David Best.

Sailor and Doxie organized a clothing drive; some of the local Burning Man community met at the Temple and there was a bonfire and cider and fire spinning and ....donations of clothes, blankets, and foods. Then they delivered that warmth directly to the cold streets of Detroit.

For more information about the dedication, wedding, World Hoop Day, Detroit Neighborhood Day and other community events at the Detroit Temple please see our prior posts:

http://blackrockarts.blogspot.com/search/label/Detroit%20Dream%20Project

photos: Dirtball

Curbed SF gives Language of the Birds the "Best Legal Public Art 2008"

The Language of Birds, originally uploaded by bothboths.

Language of the Birds from Thomas Both on Vimeo.

Language of the Birds by Brian Goggin & Dorka Keehn was part of our Grants-to-Artists Program and is being a big sucess at the corner of Broadway and Grant in San Francisco.

http://www.neatorama.com/2008/11/21/language-of-the-birds-by-brian-goggin-and-dorka-keehn/

http://www.ecofriend.org/entry/eco-arts-brain-goggin-s-solar-powered-language-of-the-birds/

Prior posts:

http://blackrockarts.blogspot.com/search/label/Language%20of%20the%20Birds

Help BRAF bring interactive art to the world in 2009!

December 18, 2008
Hi There:

2008 was a highly successful year for the Black Rock Arts Foundation, as we continued to work diligently to ensure that art and community building remained on the public agenda and served as a tool for civic engagement. We awarded grants to 7 artists in 7 cities around the globe; we helped to create the Temple of the American Dream in a disadvantaged community in Detroit, which became a rallying point of pride for its residents; we transformed a vacant lot in downtown Reno into The Mangrove, a glorious sculpture garden and community gathering spot; and we brought the popular “Monkeys” zoetrope, Homouroboros, right into ethnically diverse downtown San Jose, where office workers and neighborhood families joined together to make it spin. (More details on all of these projects can be found on Black Rock Arts Foundation and right here on our blog.)

Recently I had the pleasure to address a group of some key supporters at the ARTumnal Gathering, our annual fundraising and community-building event. I talked about how inspired I am by Larry Harvey’s description of Burning Man’s 2009 theme, “Evolution.” In it, he states that Black Rock City is a kind of Petri Dish, that Burning Man is an experiment in generating culture and all that is needed is a fitting social vessel to sustain it. We see BRAF as a kind of genome tugboat – guiding that vessel of social culture, through dangerous waters, rivers, and uncharted tributaries – far from the Petri dish of the playa. For those of you who were able to attend the ARTumnal Gathering or have been engaged in other BRAF activities throughout the year, I think you’ll agree that BRAF has made great progress in bringing the ethos of art, interaction, and community “to the rest of the world the other 51 weeks of the year.” But we need your help to continue to fund, support and enable community-building, civic-minded, interactive arts projects and expand our reach to new regions.2009 brings with it the potential for many new and exciting projects in our three key program areas: Grants to Artists, Civic Arts, and ScrapEden, as well as the completion of our Civic Arts Toolkit to assist others with instigating art in their communities. Finally, as you might have noticed, BRAF itself continues to evolve and I have joined the organization as Executive Director. I look forward to this tremendous opportunity to inoculate communities worldwide with the Burning Man ethos and encourage you to be in touch with ideas about how to engage you, our community, in our mission. We are continually grateful for the extraordinary support and investment of our community. It is your donations that sustain us. Please consider showing your support once again by making an end-of-year contribution, so that we may bring even more innovative, interactive and community-building projects to cities worldwide in 2009.

Sincerely,
Tomas McCabe
Executive Director
DONATE

The Holiday Spirit

Local artist Diction Davies has promised to donate a percentage of the proceeds from his Etsy site to the Black Rock Arts Foundation until the end of 2008.

So what is Etsy, you may ask? Etsy is a website that provides the public a way to buy and sell handmade items.

So hooray for generosity of spirit, go check it out and buy some art to benefit the Black Rock Arts Foundation!

Meet our Grantees - White Noise Shower

So, let me lure you into the The Wayback Machine so I can introduce you to Jenne Giles's project, one of BRAF's first grant recipients.

"White Noise Shower", was interactive sculpture dealing with media in our lives. The installation was a Mild Steel cage with mixed media (hair blow dryers, lights) and broken television sets. This piece was an igloo/shower of television sets which one could step into and feel the ambient noise melt away in the canceling signal of the white noise from the television sets. An unintended consequence was feeling the energy which the televisions consumed.

A portion of the grant was in addition to her requested amount, in appreciation of her work and to facilitate exhibition of the "White Noise Shower" in other San Francisco venues.

I was flipping through a local San Francisco magazine last week, 7x7, while I was researching Jenne's work and there was one of her signature scarves.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5347905

In the years since BRAF was one of the donors for her performance art she has become an amazing felt maker and continues to have sculpture, performance art, metal work and painting in her life. If you are interested in learning more about felting follow her Jenne’s blog.

Last Chance to see the Reno Mangrove!

Last chance to see The Reno Mangrove! For the last three months, a once unused and uninteresting vacant lot in downtown Reno, NV, has been transformed into a grove of trees, all by different artists. The Reno community has embraced the space created by this ‘Mangrove’ and quickly adopted the location as a favored meeting spot for social events, music performances and family outings. We’re sad to announce the project’s deinstallion on December 13, 2008, but very proud of the community involvement and civic action it has inspired! Thanks to all who contributed and supported this project. BRAF extends our sincerest thanks to the The Freight House District, LLC, the City of Reno, United Rentals, Fernley Electric and Peppermill Hotel Casino Reno and the Sierra Arts Foundation for their support of this project. Special thanks to Crimson Rose, of the BRAF Board of Directors, and volunteers Maria Partridge, Linda Shields, and the amazing Reno Burner community!

photo: Mark Hammon

ARTumnal Gathering 2008 - More Photos

photos: Camera Girl

http://www.photosbycameragirl.com/2008_Artumnal/gathering.html

newZonia "Life As Art"

newZonia is a innovative new online community angled at fostering creativity and collaboration. Join them for a delightful evening of art, film and lively entertainers on December 10, 2008. newZonia is donating a portion of the proceeds from this event to BRAF! Thank you newZonia!

Artists Jenny Bird and Shrine will be there (bring shoes, handbags and small furniture if you'd like them to be “enshrined!”) with work for sale, and there will be a screening of Voyage in Utopia, film by Laurent Le Gall. Other performers and artists include Mark Growden, Daniel Beaty, the Ka Ua Tuahine, Ramana Vieira, Bad Unkl Sistah, Poetry Jukebox, Javier Lemus, Miranda Caroligne, Templeton Variety, Scott London and Maxx Mango.

For more information, and to purchase tickets, visit:
http://newzonia.org/info/events/