Playing With Fire At City Hall

Playing with fire at City Hall usually involves a controversial idea by a renegade councillor.

But on Friday night, the expression will become literal.

The Flaming Lotus Girls, a San Francisco-based art group, are bringing an interactive installation to WinterCity.

It’s the first time the troupe, established in 2000, will perform in Canada.

“This is the first time the Angel of the Apocalypse has been seen in its entirety since 2005,” Jessica Hobbs explained over the phone.

Then, it was displayed – and destroyed – during Burning Man.

“We burned the original driftwood body in 2005, so the body we’ve created is specific for Toronto. It’s a steel and stainless steel sculpted body,” she added.

The piece, pictured above, is a fire-breathing bird’s head and body enclosed by flaming feathers.

“We’ll have three times throughout the evening where we’ll do a sound interaction with the DJs and throughout the evening, when we’re not in our show mode, people can come inside the piece and interact with it.

“We give you the power to play with our fire,” Hobbs said.

“There’s buttons throughout the installation that activate the feathers – small poofs of flame,” she outlined.

The Angel of the Apocalypse head. Credit: Catherine Lynch

The partnership with WinterCity was a long time in the making.

“We started talking to WinterCity about three years ago and kind of negotiating with local regulatory authorities to figure out how we could have such a large fire installation in the heart of Toronto, right in front of City Hall,” she said.

On Thursday, the group gave a short demonstration, and CityNews reporter Roger Petersen was there. Check out the video below.

“Thursday night was really exciting, because it was the first time we’ve been able to turn on the piece. It was the first time that people who were walking through [Nathan Phillips Square] were able to see what we were doing. It’s been fun – we’ve been here all week, tinkering and putting up our installation.

“You know, fire is this wonderful element that brings people together and it just naturally brought people by.”

---

Show Dates And Times

Fire Installation / Experience
Nathan Phillips Square, 100 Queen Street West

January 29 – 30  /  6 – 9:30 pm
January 31  /  4 – 8 pm
February 1 – 4  /  6 – 10 pm
February 5 – 6  /  6 – 9:30pm
February 7  /  4 – 8 pm

Angel of the ApocalypseChoreographed Fire Performances
Nathan Phillips Square, 100 Queen Street West

January 29  /  6:30 & 8:40 pm
January 30  /  6:30 & 9 pm
January 31  /  4:30, 5:30 & 6:30 pm
February 5  /  6:30 & 9 pm    
February 6  /  6:30 & 9 pm
February 7  /  5, 6 & 7:30 pm

---

About the Flaming Lotus Girls:

“There are 150 people that are a part of the Flaming Lotus Girls,” Hobbs said.

“We run on sort of a do-ocracy model. Basically, if you’re around and you want to see something done, you do it. It’s kind of a wonderful empowerment structure. People who might not normally want to step up and take charge or step up and sculpt something – especially for women, it’s great. Boys are included, but we all consider ourselves Flaming Lotus Girls.”