10 Insane Works of Explosive Art

Tue, Oct 7, 2008

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snake burning man

Twisting, flickering arms of red, orange, yellow and blue dance before our eyes. The mind goes blank, eyes widen as the hot flames taunt and lick their prey. Mesmerized, we stand, unable to move while the fire in view takes hold. Some are afraid, whilst others are so spellbound by its ethereal qualities that they create works of art, only to watch them burn. We decided to showcase some of the most incredible explosive works of art for your viewing pleasure:

1. Reborn, the phoenix spreads its wings and rises from the flames, at Hay-on-Fire.
phoenix sculpture
Image via: Laura Eggington
fire sculpture
Image via: Goffee

2. The spooky image of a burning head looks much too real for our liking.
head
Image: Commandante Jose

3. The Flaming Lotus Girls are renowned for their fire sculptures at Nevada’s Burning Man Festival. The huge fire breathing snake was their triumph from 2007.
snake
Image: Flaming Lotus Girls

snake burning man
Image: Flaming Lotus Girls

snake2
Image: Flaming Lotus Girls

4. Fire artists, Walk the Plank, designed this floral fire sculpture for Fire Dream and Flowers Event in Leicester, UK.

photographer unknown

5. The closing ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics saw a feast of fireworks from artist Cai Guo-Qiang. These are just a few examples of his work. It’s amazing how he manages to get all the fireworks to explode at the same height. Impressive.
olympic colours
Image: Cai Guo-Qiang

6. Wood figurines were set alight during celebrations at th Eden Project’s Winter Festival, A Time of Gifts. Each figure was animated and danced through the night.
man
Image: Eden Project
dancing men
Image: Eden Project
dancing men2
Image: Eden Project

7. A 70ft Viking ship is set alight at Tatton Park in Cheshire during a perfomance from the Halle Orchestra in 1998. How very dramatic. Wonder if they were playing Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries.

Image: Ray Brooks

8. Fire sculptures were set ablaze at the end of a drumming, dancing and singing procession to mark the end of Live8 at the Eden Project in Cornwall, 2005.
boat
Image: Eden Project

9. For those lost to the spirit world, a crow burns: I am Crow. Perceiving Past, Present and Future. Absorbing Light, Dark, Inner, Outer. My Omen to you is Change – artist’s words.
burning crow
Image via: spiritofthemoment

10. Babbling Vagabonds, a travelling storytelling theatre company set up and set light to this bat fire sculpture for one of their tales.
bat
Image: Babbling Vagabonds

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burning man, environment art, fire art, fire festivals, fire sculptures, flaming lotus girls

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This post was written by:

Linda McCormick - who has written 173 posts on Environmental Graffiti.

Linda is a writer and editor, currently based in London. Growing up in N Ireland, she craved sunnier climes so set off around the world, forever chasing the sun. On her travels she discovered she was much more passionate about the environment than she realised – although never quite got the whole tree-hugging thing – and has always had a penchant for the unconventional and creative side of life, so working at Environmental Graffiti suits her just fine.

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Nitya Says:
February 26th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
isnt all this fire and smoke and burning wood not too great for the environment? therefore should environmentalgraffiti.com really be promoting this?
i mean, no offense, it looks great, but we have to wonder what is the cost of our temporary entertainment, and a few good pictures.

Environmental Graffiti