Flaming Lotus Girls
Flaming Lotus Girls is a group of volunteer artists who make large-scale kinetic fire art for Burning Man and other outdoor events and spaces. Based in San Francisco, California, FLG has been described as a "women-focused anarchist art collective." As of 2018, the group included over a hundred members of all genders, and a majority of the members were women. Many of the sculptures include robotic art and interactive art elements, allowing the audience to control the lighting, flames, sound, or other effects. The collective's work has appeared throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Australia, and the Netherlands.
History
The group began in 2000 with several women and men who wanted to teach and gain the fabrication and design experience needed to create large sculptural installations. Early participants included people involved with or influenced by Bay Area art groups and spaces including Survival Research Laboratories, The Crucible, and CELLspace.The Flaming Lotus Girls were featured in Dust & Illusions, a documentary about the history of Burning Man. Pouneh Mortazavi, Rebecca Anders, Rosa Anna DeFilippis, Caroline Miller, Charlie Gadeken and James Stauffer were the Flaming Lotus Girls members interviewed for the film. The footage features their Serpent Mother sculpture.
Art
Early 2000s
Created for the 2000 Burning Man Festival, "Flaming Lotus Sr." was a sculptural flame thrower.In 2001, FLG created "Flaming Flower Garden", a garden of fire that included copper flowers, a lily pond, and a weeping willow.
In 2002 they built multiple sculptures. "Fire Island" had interactive flaming flowers, cacti, arbors and more. "Fire Fan" involved huge plumes of liquid fire controlled by MIDI. The third project was "Mini Mega Jr."
The 2003 project was "The Hand of God", a copper sculpture of a woman's hand that shoots flame from all five fingers.
Created in 2004, "The Seven Sisters" was a collection of seven sculptures approximately in height, representing the stars of the Pleiades constellation. The Seven Sisters include Alcyone, Celano, Maia, Taygeta, Asterope, Merope, and Electra. A Merope rebuild was completed in March 2012, and features CNC plasma-cut stainless steel sides.
The Angel of the Apocalypse (2005)
This sculpture, originally built of steel, driftwood and fire systems, rises from the earth in the form of an abstracted bird. The Angel's wings burn continuously with ambient flame, and each feather features audience-controlled fire effects.Its head, formed from curved steel plate and featuring hand-blown glass eyes, stands tall and functions as a wood-burning fireplace. Participants are invited to move around and between the Angel's feathers, and to climb and sit atop its driftwood torso.
During its debut appearance at Burning Man, the driftwood torso was burnt as part of the performance. A new steel one was designed and constructed in the winter of 2009–2010, to bring to Toronto's Winter Festival. A pair of interactive feathers were displayed at Maker Faire in San Mateo in 2015 and at an event in Vallejo in 2025.