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Fire Inside revealed...
The arson attack on the 10 foot statue left a charred edifice of Liberty. So the next summer, Timeless and crew returned to the "playa" with the charred Liberty, but also a 30' all new Statue of Liberty! They placed the former next to the later, for a retirement ceremony, dowsed her with oil and lit her up.
The fire cracked, fire dancers twirled and the night wore on but come morning the sculpture had not consumed, leaving a hardly changed, still charred statue laying alongside her massive stump pedestal — about the size of a laundry basket. The fire sunk through a gap in the burn pan, down into the cracks of the stump and burned it up from the inside out!!
And that's how the mysterious desert showed the Burners Fire Inside...
FIRE INSIDE
Fire Inside is an art form that began in 2007, with an arson attack at Burning Man, on a carved, 10-foot Statue of Liberty. The artist’s display trailer, scaffolding and tools of his trade all went up. In classic performance-art fashion, that episode would spark an entire collection of massive Liberty-themed sculptures, a voyaging art installation and a new way of burning art — a spellbinding ritual ceremony of fire and water.
In the ensuing decade, life-long sculptor Matthew Welter would become known as “Timeless” in the progressive global community, a self-styled double agent serving two cultures: The enigmatic Burning Community and the affectionately named Default — otherwise known as the real world.
In response to the arson attack, Timeless would bring new and bigger Liberty-themed sculptures every summer for the following 10 years, so every year the collection grew. In the process Timeless showed the curious global community, centered on fire art a transformative new way to burn art backwards. He would eventually burn his solid, finished wooden carvings from the inside out along-side the Temple there. This is coveted placement reserved for only the finest fire art. That's the famous Temple, constructed differently each year only to be burned to the ground again in solemnity… These monuments are all about the extreme antiquity and divine promise of Liberty. They are the first from that legendary community to survive their own burn. Now they are being shared publicly in Default.
Fire Inside is not unlike the Temple burn...deep, dreamy, introspective — mesmerizing. Standard are attended with a free-for-all of cheering, trumpeting, cart-wheeling, foot stomping, but with Fire Inside expect watery eyes, bended knees, soaring hearts, unexpected insights and welcome hugs.
Unlike the conventional burns, which go up in minutes before ending in collapse amid much applause, Fire Inside quietly but veraciously consumes for hours, even to morning light, allowing time to contemplate and proximity so close that show participants proudly assist Timeless, using water and their very breath, cooling and driving the flames all under the Fire Meister’s direction. The fire is extinguished before any collapse and the delicate textures are later hardened, to produce lasting monuments for display in public spaces everywhere.
Somehow, amid creativity and intrigue, Fire Inside produces something greater than artworks. Fire Inside is an ancient rite revealing itself again. Fire Inside has the power to transform a statue into a Talisman, born to guide and guard, each one imbued with energetic essence.
Art appraisers and curators call such artworks “playa artifacts'' in reference to the dry, barren lakebed which hosts the famous events. The sculptures in this collection are now museum pieces, poised to embark on installations into ever higher venues. Together the collection is called Liberty (R)evolution and the cause is forever marked with, charred holes, caverns and tunnels to symbolize something in every human — a fire inside called freedom.
Message in a bottle...
Using digital imaging, 3D printing and modern casting techniques, art collectors everywhere can now have any piece in this collection replicated in any size, small to huge, cast in real bronze. The artist, a life-long poet has even penned a short rhyme for each that may be engraved into the cast surface, to explain Liberty to tomorrow’s people.
Sorry news to statue topplers...
Contact the artist: Matthew “Timeless” Welter
email:Timeless.sculptures@gmail.com / Tel: (775) 230-1718
Mailing: PO Box 354, Nevada City, CA 95959