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Short
Bio
1998
Lisa
Nigro conceives the "Burnin'Bush."
1999 Lisa and a group of mostly women build
an enormous Fertility Goddess as Sundial for the Burning Man Festival.
2000 Lisa creates Draka
the dragon, and initiates first metal workshop program with the
assistance of Sam Wedderburn and Flynn Mauthe.
2002 Lisa organizes non-profit Art Foundation.
2003 Draka
Arts is officially founded.
2003
First BB Gathering takes place 26 miles south of Black Rock Desert,
NV.
2004 Lisa
establishes
"Sisterhood
of the Burnin'Bush," (SOBB) a Coalition for Women in the Arts.
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| The
story behind this...
In
1998 Lisa
Nigro first conceived the idea of organizing
the Burnin’Bush - a
small gathering where the feminine and mother earth could be honored
in the Black Rock Desert area of northern Nevada. At that time, building
an art piece in the desert was merely a fantasy Lisa had dreamed about
for several years while attending the Burning
Man festival. In 1999, she finally submitted a proposal to Burning
Man to build an enormous Fertility Goddess as a working sundial. The
proposal was accepted, and so she and a small group of mostly women
proceeded to build Lisa’s first art installation on the playa
floor. The Goddess was named Diana, after Diana of Ephesus. She was
built with steel rod and expanded metal, then covered with mud dug out
from a nearby hot pool.
Very much influenced by the style and work of Pepe Ozan, Lisa then choreographed
a theatrical piece using thirteen women and the Goddess sculpture as
the focal point of the performance. Lisa divided the women into groups
representing the five elements and asked them to act out their “parts”
while dancing around the sculpture. The performance climaxed with a
multi-breasted 5th element, on stilts, igniting Diana with a giant fire
poker to the Goddess’ yoni. Fireworks exploded from within and
the goddess burned to the ground, leaving a clay baked, crusty carcass
to be found the next morning on that beautiful, desolate playa floor.
For Lisa, this piece signified the Burning “Woman” for the
Burning “Man.” Lisa had wanted something other than “man”
for women to revel in, and perhaps even worship. Lisa wished for women
to be empowered by their participation in the building and sacrifice
of this grand fertility Goddess. Conceptually,
Diana of Ephesus:
Fertility Goddess as Sundial was literally and figuratively the
first “burning bush” with an actual "event" manifesting
and formally presenting itself 4th of July 2003. Homage to Brigit, goddess
of the hearth fire, has now succeeded Diana, goddess of fertility, so
that Burnin’Bush has new meaning for men, women, and children
alike.
Lisa would like to imagine that those who venture out to find the “Burnin’Bush”
(whether it be in search of the biblical, proverbial, political, or
otherwise) might ultimately be freedom seekers interested in expressing
themselves through blacksmithing, the metal arts, building and/or driving
art cars, creating with fire, destroying by fire, and creating patriotic
mayhem in the wake of the energies and ways of the desert world.
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