Streamliner

Tired of moving house for work I decided a plush caravan was a smart solution so looked for inspiration in various forms and ended up styling after a 1920's streamliner train.

It is quite hard to photograph without a wide angle but these process shots give you the feel.

Its 7.5m long and 3.3m high. (externally)

All the internal wood is salvaged from a spice importer. It is beautiful wood but was often a challenge to use as it has so many defects. This was a double edged sword tough as the knots often cause the defects but are also quite beautiful. 

I still have a lot of work to do but already it is still a lovely place to live.

The glass desk doubles as a light box.

Running off 500w of solar the switch board is starting to come together. The large knife switch is the main circuit breaker and a beautiful antique. I don't know its age but it is before good plastic as its based on a thick chunk of slate rather than bakelite. I will have a arduino to control many of the functions at some stage but for now its all very manual. 

I have the parts to make the door close like a submarine pressure door but this is far down the list.

This is my bedside lamp and terrarium. it has a ring of different leds and a ring of magnets carrying power so you can chose the colors that suit the mood.

At some point the plants will all be watered automatically but for now these hanging planters are all just watered with a small fuel pump.

Kiwiburn - NZ's regional Burningman event.

Over the years I have built a range of different installations ranging from a six sided mirrored room to more ambitious projects such as the effigy and temples. In 2019 I am looking to co lead a project to do both the temple and effigy to unite the two. We are looking to use woven bamboo and landscaping over some of these structures to tell the story of how Ranginui and Papatuanuku where split apart to make the world for man.

In 2014 I lead the design and build of the burns 11 meter tall wooden effigy. 

With flame thrower hands and over 200 pallets in the construction the heat was remarkably intense

2012 I designed a temple built exclusively un-milled materials. The frame was built from elephant bamboo and as you can see the lining was all driftwood collected and trucked to the site.

This burn was particularly emotional as a local volunteer had committed suicide shortly before the event started and the local iwi chose this even to hold a service and carvings symbolic of the man were placed on the fire.  

This last burn I acted as 2IC for the effigy build to support one of my previous crew.

It was an intensely rewarding experience and I highly enjoyed the quantity of climbing and abseiling.

The design lead asked me to help him with making the man speak and burn blue. For the I installed a pyrophone and blow torch in the chest. for the blue fire I have often had problems with contamination when using the simple "bag of fuel technique" and due to evaporation rate of the unique fuel, just dousing it is also not possible. So we installed a steel pressure vessel and used LPG to blow the fuel directly where we wanted it to go. This worked perfectly and the blue tears poured convincingly from the eyes. 

Festa del fuoco de Stromboli

Over 8 years during our winters I worked as a sculptor and primary technical support of a burgeoning fire festival on the island of Stromboli.

A short documentry was made about this and is available on Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/46655964

I built a variety of LPG fueled fire sculptures to fit each years theme.

I designed and built this stainless steel geodesic dome to act as an aerial rig

This was one of the most rewarding sculptures I built. It has a fully functioning 3 tier fluid union to distribute LPG to the arms of the "clock" all other parts of the mechanism where salvaged from scrap yards on the island. I used parts from bicycles motorbikes, boat winches, and the iconic ape 50cc.   

A visiting Dunedin artist Rohana Weaver and I collaborated on this fire-breathing tiger.

Most recently Bianca Beebe and myself built this fire version of the Spanish-web where she hung suspended from the flaming rope doing aerial poses while spun so that the centrifugal force held the rope away from her body. Look out for version 2.0 of this rig!