Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden "Ecstasy", Hayes Valley SF, 2011.

This amazing sculpture made of chains and other scrap metal stands about 25 feet tall in Hayes Valley, San Francisco. I feel compelled to call her the Iron Maiden, as a salute to the titans of metal, but the true name is Ecstasy by Dan Das Mann and Karen Cusolito. The figure originally stood at Burning Man as part of a piece called Crude Awakening. Ecstasy joined seven other figures in various gestures of "worship, prostration, and exaltation" in response to the 99-foot oil derrick they surrounded. Wow.

It gets more intense. They burned the wooden derrick in a massive explosion set off by 400 gallons of jet fuel mixed with 300 gallons of gasoline. Collectively it all represents our dependence on oil... they've done the math, and the carbon consumption per person who viewed the display goes down, by their logic, each day, moment, that someone appreciates the piece. I'm not sure if I agree with all this justification, but it's right here.

Coincidentally, I met one of the artists who worked on this project earlier this evening at a gallery opening/open studio that photographer and long-time friend Toni Gentilli told me about.

This post dedicated to Jay and Aaron. I think you'd dig this sculpture (hair made of chains).