Zor – Fyre God, portrayed by Karl Wood
Zor – Fyre God, portrayed by Karl Wood, is the most captivating fire performer we have ever seen. He will display his matchless talents evenings at the Trojan Horse and play an incendiary role in its demise Friday night.
Zor has traveled extensively throughout the world studying and performing the Fire arts. Learn more about him and how he incorporates martial arts and dance into an exotic one man Fireshow at fyregod.com.
Come and say hello to Douglas, Alaya and Eric, and learn all about how to join Dionysus’ retinue, be a brass or drum player in an epic performance, or help construct our majestic Trojan Horse!
E’rrôso! Goodbye!
(We are learning to talk in Ancient Greek.)
The Triumph of Death, or The 3 Fates. Flemish tapestry (probably Brussels, ca. 1510-1520)
Among our many performers supporting the project by incorporating mythological characters we’ll hvae three lovely ladies taking on the roles of The Three Fates:
The Greeks of the high classical age put strong faith in the idea of fate and of an unavoidable course of life. They thought every life had a reason for beginning, and that reason was also its end. (Fate is distinguished from Destiny, which has more of an undertone of control.) This divinely indifferent culmination of the course of life is what the three Fates represent. Their name in ancient Greek is Moira, which means “a portion,” so the three Moirae represent the personification of the share of existence that is meted out to all living things. The Moirae are ever-present in the Trojan story. Continue reading
Our Trojan Horse – Featured Artists will include performers reviving ancient Greek acrobatics traditions. And in the old times, acrobatics was a lot more dangerous, as you’ll see:
Crete's most famous bull-leaping fresco from Knossos (~1700-1500 BC)
The finest example of Bronze Age acrobats is from the palace at Knossos on Crete. It was the center of the Minoan empire, which dominated trade as the single greatest maritime power the ancient world ever saw. At the Knossos palace there are striking murals of lithe youths twirling and sailing through the horns of bulls.
Ancient Greek Warfare
Burners volunteering to be costumed Greek or Trojan soldiers will be able to participate in different ways and times on the playa. Regardless of whether you have martial arts experience or not, we have a place for you in the Thursday afternoon battle reenactment. Training and performance will be supervised by Jonathan Visser, who has studied many forms of martial arts for many years and is certified by the Society of American Fight Directors in Hand-to-Hand, Rapier and Dagger, Broadsword, and Quarterstaff.
Read more about Jonathan’s vision for the event here.
We are very proud to announce that Joel Dean Stockdill – also known as Rocket Joel – has joined our team as Master Builder! We want you to meet the man, and some of his previous Burning Man pieces:
Covered Wagon at Burning Man 2008
Joel Dean Stockdill
Joel Dean Stockdill grew up in the farming town of Garrison, North Dakota. He gained his love of woodcraft at his father’s knee, helping his dad refinish homes and furniture. Joel spent his early 20′s learning carpentry in the mountains of Colorado, starting with tract homes to meet the demands of oil and gas workers on the Western Slope. He graduated to the immense and upscale “cabins” and stately ski chalets of the Aspen region. Before he attended Burning Man in 2007, he visited San Francisco, both for the first time. The LARGE-scale art he saw in those venues was his prime motivation for moving to the Bay Area. Since then he has immersed himself in the SF artist community, pushing boundaries and proportions as demonstrated by the size of his most recent work. At Burning Man, he has had a principal role in the Covered Wagon (2008) and Ghost Ship’s Pirate Ship (2009) and Battleship (2010). His involvement in the Trojan Horse Project is a perfect fit for the exponential growth in his sculptural work. The challenges it presents bring a wide smile to his face.
Jordan Betten (Betten Art | Lost Art) will be creating a 2,500 square foot painting depicting Trojan War scenes as part of the Trojan Horse Project. He achieved fame first for clothing the rich and famous in outrageously beautiful, original, and expensive skins and furs. In the last five years, he has also turned to painting and sculpture, and quickly gained acclaim. Check out some of his amazing work in the video below.
The Burning Man community is just amazing! Since our Casting Call was featured on Jack Rabbit Speaks (JRS) – Burning Man’s official email list – late Monday night, we’ve gotten a flood of emails from people all over the world interested in helping out and participating in the project. Builders, satyrs, mythology-geeks, drummers, archers, maenads, descendants of Greek royalty, dancers, … to name just a few. We simply love your enthusiasm for our Trojan Horse!
We are sorting through all the emails right now and are trying to get back to everyone ASAP. If you are waiting for a response, we are on it! But we ask your patience.
Meanwhile, we can always use more helpers! So go and recruit your friends! And let us know if you happen to own a Greek restaurant and are willing to contribute a feast for gods and soldiers, or if you know where to score 300 white togas. We are open to any good suggestions on how to fund this beast!
On its last night – Friday – the Horse will go down in flames. And it won’t go down quietly, that’s for sure!
Read more about the Burn.
it’s been a busy couple of days! We pushed the Horse a few steps further towards its end-goal by submitting to the Burning Man Art Grant a few days ago! And this page has been updated with a new design and tons of other new stuff – just have a look at the About section.
