Flaming Lotus Girls

The San Francisco, California,-based Flaming Lotus Girls is a collaborative art group that creates large-scale fire art. The group was founded in 2000 by a group of artists working on a sculpture for the Burning Man arts festival in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. They take their name from their first sculpture, "Flaming Lotus". Their work is notable for being interactive and kinetic. Their pieces are composed primarily of steel, stainless steel, copper, glass, wood, and light, with flames ranging from a convert|2|in|mm|sing=on flicker to a convert|150|ft|m|sing=on blaze.

One distinctive element is that this is a female driven group. A core mission of the group is to help women learn how to use their hands and tools to build sculpture. While they invite both women and men, from expert to novice, to collaborate, all must consider themselves "girls".

Any member who regularly attends meetings can have input in designing, building, operating and playing with the large-scale work that is created. This type of leadership has been coined a "Do-ocracy". In short, if one wants to see something happen they take the initiative to do it.

Art

Mutopia (2008)

Mutopia will be a large sculpture, incorporating steel, flame, motion and many electronics effects. It will be first presented in its entirety at Burning Man 2008, for which an art grant was received. Portions of the incomplete sculpture were presented at Maker Faire 2008 and Yuri's Night at NASA Ames.

The Serpent Mother (2006)

The Serpent Mother is a 168' long sculpture of a skeletal serpent coiled around and protecting her egg. Propane fueled flame effects light up the top of each vertebrae. Six foot high jets of flame shoot from each vertebrae when participants push buttons near the base of the sculpture or by computer control. The neck and jaw are operated by pneumatic cylinders. The top of the arch of her back is convert|20|ft|m off the ground. Each of her teeth is lit from within by fire and her underbelly is lit by undulating computer controlled LEDs. The 10' tall egg has a finely worked copper shell. It opens and shoots colored liquid methanol flame effects. The whole piece burns approximately 2 tons of propane per evening.

Over a hundred people at a time can stand inside the area enclosed by her curving body, being being kept warm and entertained by the fires burning around them.

The completed work has been displayed at
* Robodock Arts and Technology Festival, Amsterdam, Netherlands, September 2007
* The Crucible Fire Arts Festival, Oakland CA, July 2007
* Burning Man arts festival, Nevada, August 2006
* A partially completed version of the sculpture was displayed at The Crucible Fire Arts Festival, July 2006

The Angel of the Apocalypse (2005)

This elegant sculptural group, built of steel, driftwood and fire, rises from the earth in the form of an abstracted bird.

The Angel's wings burn continuously with ambient flame, each feather brought to life with blazing “poof” fire effects controlled by participants gathered in the courtyard of the 50 by convert|50|ft|m|sing=on installation. Its great head, formed of curved steel plate and enlivened with hand-blown glass eyes, stands convert|20|ft|m tall and functions as a wood burning fireplace.

Visitors are invited to move around and between the Angel’s flaming feathers and to seat themselves atop its driftwood torso. All are encouraged to operate the propane flame effects of its inner wings.

The Seven Sisters (2004)

A collection of seven sculptures approx convert|15|ft|m in height representing the stars of the Pleiades constellation.
*Alcyone
*Celano
*Maia
*Taygeta
*Asterope
*Merope
*Electra

The Hand of God (2003)

A convert|12|ft|m|sing=on copper sculpture of a woman's hand that shoots flame from all five digits.

Mini Mega Jr. (2002)

Fire Fan (2002)

Huge plumes of liquid fire controlled by midi.

Fire Island (2002)

Interactive Flaming Flowers, cacti, arbors & More.

Fire Garden (2001)

A garden of fire, including copper flowers, a lily pond, and a weeping willow.

Flaming Lotus Sr. (2000)

A sculptural flame thrower.

External links

* [http://flaminglotus.com Official Flaming Lotus Girls website]
* [http://flaminglotus.wordpress.com/ Flaming Lotus Girls blog]
* [http://mutopia.wordpress.com Mutopia website]
* [http://serpentmother.com Serpent Mother website]
* [http://www.madnomad.net/menu/index.php?iframe=film Videos about the Flaming Lotus Girls from Madnomad Films.]
* [http://www.flickr.com/groups/81414704@N00/ Flaming Lotus Girls Photo Pool on Flickr]
* [http://www.communitywiki.org/en/DoOcracy Definition of Do-ocracy]