BM13 · Burning Man 2013 · Cargo Cult
UniFire
Playatech & Red Lightning Light Up The Esplanade
Playatech — how wood puts the rock in Black Rock City
For Cargo Cult, we called in a cargo of fire — as many kinds as we could muster. The result was UniFire, a unification of the masculine and feminine, and of all of us, through every kind of fire we could get our hands on.
It featured a 24′×12′ Playatech fire performance stage, a Playatech DJ booth, and two Playatech pillars containing speakers and flame effects controlled by the DJ.
Behind the stage we built a performer staging area with a fuel depot, safety gear, and Zach Mallon’s Fuel Reclamation Project spin-out ring. In front, Sunshine’s fire cauldron with Playatech benches around it.
Right behind that rose Gary Evans’ “Threshold” — two twenty-foot tipi-like effigies, one an enclave for healing with the masculine, the other with the feminine.
The whole installation was lit with red LED rope on one side for the feminine and blue on the other for the masculine, coming together as white light in the middle.
Every night from Tuesday through Friday, DJs rocked the playa while fire performers lit up the stage, propane poofers fired from each side, and a bonfire roared in front. You’d think a huge fire, light and sound installation right on the Esplanade would be obvious — so we were amazed how many bike riders drove straight into things. Luckily no one was hurt.
We filled the Threshold tipis with gasoline and ran slow fuses from the ground to their tips. After a fire dance staging a battle and reconciliation of the masculine and feminine, the performers lit the fuses.
We watched in near-silent contemplation for ten minutes as they raced upward in excruciatingly slow motion. Finally the feminine tipi let loose, fire shooting from the top and dropping down to engulf the effigy. The masculine followed shortly after and, in true form, fell first.
Huge appreciation to the hundred or more fire performers, DJs, builders and production crew who made this happen, and to Red Lightning camp for hosting. More at Facebook/UniFire.
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