FIRE

dark mofo 2019
mass public ritual
Dark Mofo, nipaluna/Hobart
Firecracker Willow
Fire Artist: Alex Podger
ogoh ogoh burning
Fears are written and purged, fed to the Ogoh Ogoh - a demon effigy derived from a Balinese Hindu community purification ritual and crafted by Balinese artists. On the final day, it is dragged through the streets and hoisted onto the pyre; a giant weeping willow , with two hundred thousand firecracker leaves.
Willows hold ancient roots in mourning and death. Firecrackers were the first fireworks created - their purpose to scare away demons - and each explosion represents a species going extinct in the last two years, visualised as an explosion instead of silence.
The flames burn our fears, on the shortest day of the year.

dark mofo 2018
fire installation + public ritual
Dark Mofo, nipaluna/Hobart
Sun Cross + Fire Web
Fire Artist: Alex Podger
the winter fires + ogoh ogoh burning
"These fires were burning all over the countryside, and each of them, even the most humble, had to be fed. The fire of the poet, of the teacher, of the carpenter. But among those living fires, how many closed windows there were, how many dead stars, fires that gave off no light for lack of nourishment" - Antoine De Saint Exupery
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One thousand fire tins arranged as a crossroads, one entrance with three exits.
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On the final night, the Ogoh Ogoh was sacrificed on a twenty metre spider web of fire and smoke.

bleach festival 2019
opera
goo-een/Gold Coast
Site Designer + Pyro Artist: Alex Podger
verdi: requiem
Flames leap from the wings in the Dies Irae, as we journey through anger and hurt to freedom. Two thousand red prayer candles light the orchestra, giant rusted candelabras burn with bright flames and firework stars burst cathartically in the sky above us.