Photo montage by Michael Holden http://michaelholden.com

The last time there was any fire on the lot where the Burien Interim Art Space was once located was when candles flickered inside pumpkins in Nov., 2009 – but get ready to burn again B-Town, as the largest Burning Man Community outside of San Francisco will be bringing ‘SeaCompression: Mocktoberfest‘ to that space Oct. 15th!

This will be the group’s 10th annual ‘decompression party,’ and according to a press release, they’ll be “stuffing two acres of downtown Burien with Fire, Music and Art.”

“We invite you to come celebrate with two full acres of theme camps, interactive displays, fire spinners, DJs, live music and performers, dance, art cars, grilled cheese, suspension rigs, small blimps, neon rainbows, and every other odd thing we can think of,” reads the release. “Imagine one city block of Burning Man being transported – streets and all – to downtown Burien!

SeaCompression is a 21 and over event, because, along with all the fire, performers and grilled cheese(!), there will be five highly decorated theme bars serving a wide range of tasty adult concoctions.

There will also be several local food vendors on site, as well as a variety of special treats throughout the evening.

SeaCompression will have two different sound stages performing a wide variety of musical acts, including a DJ-driven dance hall, with 10 different DJs spinning dance tunes though the night. There is also a performance stage with an amazing lineup of fire spinners, musical acts and other performances.

SeaCompression is an annual fundraising festival for Ignition Northwest, a non-profit, volunteer driven, 501(c)3 community arts board that funds a variety of annual art and educational programs.

Tickets are pre-sale $25 (buy them online here), and $40 at the door.

You can bet your buddies at The B-Town Blog will be there, both covering this event as well as enjoying it!

Here are the details:

WHAT: ‘Seacompression: Mocktoberfest” Celebration with “theme camps, interactive displays, fire spinners, DJs, live music and performers, dance, art cars, grilled cheese, suspension rigs, small blimps, neon rainbows, and every other odd thing we can think of…”

WHEN: Saturday, Oct. 15th starting at 6 p.m.

WHERE: The empty lot once occupied by B/ IAS, located at 500 SW 151st Street just north of Burien Town Square.

TICKETS: Tickets are pre-sale $25 / $40 at the door.

INFO: For more info, go to Seacompression.org.

Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=239540092735597

VIDEOS: Here are some videos from previous SeaCompressions:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s even more:

SeaCompression typically features a wide range of art that includes large scale kinetic sculptures, art cars and buses, fire art, and sound & light shows. You might see random oddities such as a 30′ neon rainbow, a remote controlled blimp, a 12′ tall bundle of grapes, or a hydrodynamic science project that mixes fire and water in a 6′ whirlpool.

SeaCompression has been running annually since 2002. It takes place in Autumn, typically in late October or early November. It has been held at the Fremont UnConventional Center, the Ballard Segway, Consolidated Works, and Sand Point Magnusson Park. Ignition Northwest and its event producers have worked closely with City of Seattle Fire Marshals, Parks Department staff, and private property owners, and a professional security team to ensure that our events are managed responsibly with minimal impact on the surrounding community.

SeaCompression is sponsored by Ignition Northwest and is produced by an all-volunteer staff. Proceeds help fund large scale public art projects, an annual scholarship to Pratt art school and other educational projects throughout the year.

The Burien/ Interim Art Space was close to two years of Kathy and my life and we closed with one of the most successful events of its kind to ever happen in Burien, The Night of 1000 Pumpkins. This event was not only our largest but included our largest number of collaborators. We are very proud about the event and its effect on the community at large.

Now how would you feel if one of the invited collaborators just took the name and the event for themselves, no communication, no coordination and no professional courtesy ? Well that is exactly what has happened to us. The Highline Historical Society has taken the name for their own event and has moved the event to SeaTac (download the newsletter here as a PDF file, and look at Page 3).

We are very thankful to the Highline Historical Society in accepting our invitation to participate in the Nof1000P event last year. Their contributed sponsorship of the altars along with the United Latino Association of Highline Community College was a great addition to the event. We invited HHS to participation in the Nof1000P because we felt the previous year’s Day of the Dead altars at the Burien Community Center deserved a broader audience and we felt we had the venue for that.

Overall the event and the night was about the sum of the whole not just one contributor.

Shame on you Highline Historical Society,
Dane Johnson and Kathy Justin
Founders of the B/ IAS project

Also, if you have something you’d like to share with our Readers, please email a “Letter to the Editor” by clicking here. Be sure to include your real name and a way to contact you, and, pending our review, we’ll most likely post it.]

by Robb Patrickson

Burien’s Pubic Arts Board announced Thursday (April 1) that they’re going to re-open the now-closed but innovative Burien Interim Art Space, which once sat in an empty lot at SW 150th and 5th SW near the Town Square complex.

In order to save money and re-use current signage, the new space will still be call B/ IAS, but the acronym will stand for:

Burien’s Imaginary Art Space

“What once housed elements of unique ‘Burning Man’ sculptures like ‘The Passage’ or ‘Fire Pod’ will now sit totally vacant and empty,” said new B/ IAS Curator Yonnie Yonson, an avant-garde artiste´ who hails from Slooflir, PA. “Where once there was a controversial naked female sculpture there will just sit chunks of crumpled, broken asphalt. Where once there was a ‘sustainable garden’ there will sit…dirt…”

With a grand re-opening date set for “whenever,” according to Yonson, the new B/ IAS will give art lovers everywhere a “chance to sit or lie down, or perhaps even squat…close your eyes and imagine great art that only you can conjure up in your teeny tiny little Burien mind,” according to a press release.

A $5 cover charge will apply and be payable through one of six kiosks that will line the perimeter of the new razor-wire fence that was installed overnight Wednesday night.

Part of a new razor-wire fence that surrounds the new B/ IAS.

Here’s the press release in its entirety:

BURIEN – What once housed a collection of innovative and sometimes controversial artwork in this humble little town will rise again, as B/ IAS, or “Burien’s Imaginary Art Space,” which will be re-opened as a space where even the wildest art projects can “come to life.”

“What once housed elements of unique ‘Burning Man’ sculptures like ‘The Passage’ or ‘Fire Pod’ will now sit totally vacant and empty,” said new B/ IAS Curator Yonnie Yonson, himself an avant-garde artiste´ who hails from Slooflir, PA. “Where once there was a controversial naked female sculpture there will just sit chunks of broken asphalt. Where once there was a ‘sustainable garden’ there will sit…dirt.”

Visitors will be required to pay a $5 cover charge at new electronic Kiosks, which are being installed on April 1st.

“For just $5 bucks, you can now create your own art space,” said Yonson as he closed his eyes and puffed on a clove cigarette. “Imagine the possibilities!”

Once inside the secure razor-wire fence, visitors will be free to roam at will and stand, sit, lie down or even squat wherever they please on an assortment of uncomfortable broken asphalt chunks. Three watch towers will create a “harmonious safety zone” in an otherwise bleak Burien environment, and armed guards will keep everyone safe, including children to families and yes, even pets. The only banned visitors will be local politicians.

This new B/ IAS will give art lovers everywhere a chance to sit or lie down, or perhaps even squat…and close your eyes and imagine great art that only you can conjure up in your teeny tiny little Burien mind!

[INTERN EDITOR'S NOTE: We certainly hope all our beloved Readers are enjoying today, April 1, 2010, aka "April Fools' Day"!]

Story by Scott Schaefer
Photos by Michael Brunk

On Thursday (Dec. 17th), “The Passage,” the large, two-piece Mother/Daughter sculpture by Dan Das Mann that anchored Burien’s Interim Art Space, was de-installed, hoisted by crane, lowered and secured on a flatbed truck in preparation to be carted away.

The sculpture will return back to its “home” in California after spending a year as the centerpiece to an innovated and sometimes controversial experiment in community art.

Co-Curators Dane Johnson and Kathy Justin were there, along with volunteers and hired workers who, over the course of the last two weeks, have removed all pieces from B/ IAS, the one-year art project in a space on SW 150th that once housed Bartell Drugs and its parking lot.

Now devoid of all art, the place will return to its empty parking lot-like self, the chunks of asphalt no longer representing anyone’s artistic vision, but rather an uncertain future for this lot. There will be no more controversial “naked lady statue” (“Paradigm Shift” by Mike McGrath), no more worries by the Fire Department about the use of fire as “art,” no more loud dance music blasting out of speakers, no more smashing pumpkins, and no more “art” here.

Will it house a new cinema? Another section of Town Square? A park of some sort?

Or perhaps…another, new art installation?

Only time will tell, and we here at The B-Town Blog would like to tip our collective hats to all the artists, volunteers, workers, students, community activists, city officials, gardeners, developers, visitors and observers who were all brought together by this idea, and who shared numerous joyous, fun events over the last year.

Yet here we are repeating that scene, only in reverse – Photographer Michael Brunk stopped by over the last two days and documented the “de-installations” with this Photo Slideshow:

Also, as our salute to the ending of B/ IAS and the exiting of “The Passage,” we present an encore of our artist Danielle Burton’s vision of this sad ending:

Click to View Scott Schaefer’s Photo Slideshow

Click to Play Michael Brunk’s SoundSlideshow

Click to View Scott Schaefer’s Photo Slideshow

On April Fool's Day, we showed off how much we suck at Photoshop with this lame doctored image of "vandalism" to The Passage. Everyone of course was fooled.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Read our previous coverage of B/ IAS here.

Word is that the largest remaining pieces, the mother-daughter sculpture “The Passage,” will be removed this Wednesday, Dec. 16th, returning the space to what it once was – an empty parking lot.

Photographer Michael Brunk was on hand to capture this Photo Slideshow:

Click to View Michael Brunk’s Photo Slideshow

Read our previous coverage of B/ IAS here.

Driving past Burien’s Interim Art Space Friday afternoon, we noticed something was amiss.

No, nobody had cleaned up the chunks of asphalt that everyone complains about, nor had anyone covered up the nekkid lady sculpture.

Rather, a large portion of the colorful, big graffiti-styled painted mural had fallen over. This large piece was created by Sam “Sneke” Swanson and Iosefatu Sua at the 2008 Strawberry Festival, as an on-the-street “competition,” and was installed at B/ IAS in late July.

On Friday afternoon, about half of it was laying on its side.

Was this an act of vandalism?

Or merely from a recent windstorm?

Regardless, we just had to stop and take these pics:

Click to View Scott Schaefer’s Photo Slideshow

We also sent an email query to Kathy Justin, who served along with Dane Johnson as Co-Curator for Burien’s innovative temporary art space, which will be taken apart over the next three weeks.

Kathy had this to say after we asked her what caused the mural to break:

It is from the wind.  We are de-installing it tomorrow.

Kathy

So, the mural will be de-installed on Saturday, Dec. 5th, and we’re sure that if you’re up for helping, they could use some volunteer labor.

In the meantime, we’re going to sit in our cars nearby and cry…

PREVIOUS COVERAGE:

• Mural Created At Last Year’s Strawberry Festival Installed At B/ IAS
• Photos of the Mural Being Painted at the 2008 Strawberry Festival

Photographer Michael Brunk was there to capture both audio and photos of the day, which he’s combined into the following “SoundSlideshow”:

Click to Play Michael Brunk’s SoundSlideshow

Just when you thought that the fun with the skeletons and candy were done, today (Sunday, Nov. 1st) is the official start of Dia de las Muertes, an Hispanic celebration also known as “Day of the Dead.”

We here at The B-Town Blog love this celebration so much that we’ll be at Burien’s only known commemoration starting at 3:30pm, at the Interim Art Space on SW 151st just north of the new Town Square – it’s “Night of 1,000 Pumpkins”!

Sadly, this will be the final event held at B/ IAS before the dismantling begins and the space returns to an empty lot Dec. 31st – all the more reason to come up and celebrate one last time.

In case you’re not familiar with Dia de las Muertes, here’s some info from Wikipedia:

The Day of the Dead (El Día de los Muertos or All Souls’ Day) is a holiday celebrated in Mexico and by Latin Americans living in the United States and Canada. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. The celebration occurs on November 1st and 2nd in connection with the Catholic holiday of All Saints’ Day which occurs on November 1st and All Souls’ Day which occurs on November 2nd. Traditions include building private altars honoring the deceased, using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these as gifts.

Original Artwork by Danielle Burton. Click image to see large version.

The fun begins today at 3:30pm and goes until dark:

• Bring a carved Pumpkin (or more) with a candle to fill the site with 1,000 lit pumpkins (you can also carve one there)
• Bring something for the community Dia de las Muertes altar (photos of the departed, trinkets, symbols of their lives, etc.)
• Walk through the makeshift cemetery
• Dress up in Day of the Dead costumes/makeup (Calaveras, or skeleton costumes are perfect)
• Pay tribute to your departed loved ones and gather with your neighbor over food, drink and dance
• Celebrate your community, your family and friends one final time at this innovative space
• Face Painting
• Flower Making
• Grand Pumpkin Games
• Sand Painting by artist Amaranta Sandys in the lobby of the Burien Library
• Traditional foods and vendors
• Community created Altars

PERFORMERS:

• 4:30 to 6:30: Trio Lucero del Norte on the B/ IAS Site (Roots Music / Regional Mexican / Folk); 
Trío Lucero del Norte play traditional/regional Mexican music from the Huasteca. Specialists in son huasteco and huapango, they are currently the only local group who play son huasteco with the complete ensemble: violin, jarana and quinta huapanguera. Son huasteco is the zapateado style of Mexican son from the Huasteca region. It formed the basis for many styles of huapango that became popular throughout Greater Mexico. The Huasteca region encompasses the plains region of six states: Hidalgo, Puebla, San Luis Potosí, Querétaro, Veracruz and Tamaulipas.
In addition to sones huastecos and huapangos, Trío Lucero del Norte interpret sones de costumbre for Day of the Dead and Carnaval, sones and cumbias in Náhuatl and Huastecan regional stylings of polkas, canciones rancheras, boleros and cumbias. The three members: Jose Hernández (violin), Modesto Antonio Hernández (quinta huapanguera) and Kim Carter Muñoz (jarana), met when Kim posted an add in the El Paisano, a Mexican Carnicaría/Grocery in White Center.
Kim traveled to Mexico for several years to study son huasteco and sones de costumbre for her graduate studies in Ethnomusicology. After playing with well-known son huasteco musicians in Mexico, including Los Cantores de Pánuco, Soraima y Sus Huastecos, Trio Chicóntepec, Los Caporales de Pánuco and others, she wanted to form her own trío in Seattle.
• 5:30 to 6:30: Los Flacos At the Burien Library; Join with Los Flacos for a musical celebration of El Día de los Muertos. This Latino music group performs a blend of the traditional sounds of Mexico, South America and the Caribbean. Using a variety of instruments, some indigenous to the Americas and others of European and African origin, they create their own renditions of the songs of Latin America. Gather together with friends at the Burien Library to remember and celebrate the lives of those who have died. For More info on Los Flacos.
• 6:30 to 7:30: Pyrosutra on the B/ IAS Site; Pyrosutra is a fire dance collective based out of Seattle, Washington. We combine choreographed bellydance, breakdance and stilt walking with a wide range of professional fire performance techniques and innovative tools.
• 7:30 to 9:30: La Banda Gozona on the B/ IAS Site

Tapetes de Arena or Sand paintings
These “murals” are typically made of sand, sawdust, seeds, flower petals, and pigments. Traditionally, a tapete is made in the home when there is a death in the family. After a period of mourning, the tapete is swept up and entombed with the body of the deceased. Tapetes are also created all over Oaxaca for the Días de los Muertos celebration, and judged along with the ofrendas in the Concursos de Altares de Muertos.

Amaranta Sandys is been collaborating in the making of sandpaintings with Latino artists in Seattle for the last 10 years @ SAM and Tacoma Art Musuem.

We think that if you dig Tim Burton or Danny Elfman, or love Hispanic culture (or even just good ol’ fashioned dead people), you’re sure to enjoy this event (and we can assure you, we’ll be there…).

All pumpkins will be composted through a gift from King County Solid Waste.

Burien’s Interim Art Space’s space in time is nearing its completion, with a Dec. 31st deadline fast approaching, and it’s fitting that the final big bash will be a special Day of the Dead “Night of 1,000 Pumpkins” celebration on Sunday, Nov. 1st.

Everyone’s invited to bring carved pumpkins and a candle to the B/ IAS site (beginning at 3:30pm), or carve one there to fill the area with illuminated jack o’ lanterns.

Bring something for the community Dia de las Muertes altar, walk through the cemetery, pay tribute to your departed loved ones and gather with your neighbor over food, drink and dance. Celebrate your community, your family and friends!

And be sure to bring your carved Pumpkin with a candle to fill the site with 1000 lit pumpkins.

The fun begins at 3:30pm and goes until Dark:

• Pumpkin Carving for Adults and Kids
• Face Painting
• Flower Making
• Grand Pumpkin Games
• Sand Painting by artist Amaranta Sandys at the Burien Library
• Traditional foods and vendors
• Community created Altars

PERFORMERS:

• 4:30 to 6:30: Trio Lucero del Norte on the B/ IAS Site (Roots Music / Regional Mexican / Folk); 
Trío Lucero del Norte play traditional/regional Mexican music from the Huasteca. Specialists in son huasteco and huapango, they are currently the only local group who play son huasteco with the complete ensemble: violin, jarana and quinta huapanguera. Son huasteco is the zapateado style of Mexican son from the Huasteca region. It formed the basis for many styles of huapango that became popular throughout Greater Mexico. The Huasteca region encompasses the plains region of six states: Hidalgo, Puebla, San Luis Potosí, Querétaro, Veracruz and Tamaulipas.
In addition to sones huastecos and huapangos, Trío Lucero del Norte interpret sones de costumbre for Day of the Dead and Carnaval, sones and cumbias in Náhuatl and Huastecan regional stylings of polkas, canciones rancheras, boleros and cumbias. The three members: Jose Hernández (violin), Modesto Antonio Hernández (quinta huapanguera) and Kim Carter Muñoz (jarana), met when Kim posted an add in the El Paisano, a Mexican Carnicaría/Grocery in White Center.
Kim traveled to Mexico for several years to study son huasteco and sones de costumbre for her graduate studies in Ethnomusicology. After playing with well-known son huasteco musicians in Mexico, including Los Cantores de Pánuco, Soraima y Sus Huastecos, Trio Chicóntepec, Los Caporales de Pánuco and others, she wanted to form her own trío in Seattle. 
• 5:30 to 6:30: Los Flacos At the Burien Library; Join with Los Flacos for a musical celebration of El Día de los Muertos. This Latino music group performs a blend of the traditional sounds of Mexico, South America and the Caribbean. Using a variety of instruments, some indigenous to the Americas and others of European and African origin, they create their own renditions of the songs of Latin America. Gather together with friends at the Burien Library to remember and celebrate the lives of those who have died. For More info on Los Flacos.
• 6:30 to 7:30: Pyrosutra on the B/ IAS Site; Pyrosutra is a fire dance collective based out of Seattle, Washington. We combine choreographed bellydance, breakdance and stilt walking with a wide range of professional fire performance techniques and innovative tools.
• 7:30 to 9:30: La Banda Gozona on the B/ IAS Site

Tapetes de Arena or Sand paintings
These “murals” are typically made of sand, sawdust, seeds, flower petals, and pigments. Traditionally, a tapete is made in the home when there is a death in the family. After a period of mourning, the tapete is swept up and entombed with the body of the deceased. Tapetes are also created all over Oaxaca for the Días de los Muertos celebration, and judged along with the ofrendas in the Concursos de Altares de Muertos.

Amaranta Sandys is been collaborating in the making of sandpaintings with Latino artists in Seattle for the last 10 years @ SAM and Tacoma Art Musuem.

We think that if you dig Tim Burton or Danny Elfman, or love Hispanic culture (or even just good ol’ fashioned dead people), you’re sure to enjoy this event (and we can assure you, we’ll be there…).

All pumpkins will be composted through a gift from King County Solid Waste.

Here’s info on B/ IAS from their website:

The Burien/ Interim Art Space (B/ IAS) is a year–long experiment that expires Dec. 31st. Founded by residents Dane Johnson and Kathy Justin, B/ IAS combines and transforms the concepts of art, temporary green spaces, and community gathering.

B/ IAS at Town Square displayed Burien’s first major temporary art piece, “The Passage,” a sculpture depicting a mother and child walking together to share and explore life. This artwork was first created by Dan Das Mann and Karen Cusolito for the 2005 Burning Man Arts Festival. The figures stand a dramatic 30′ and 20′ tall and are fabricated out of recycled and scrap metal.

B/ IAS is located just north of Burien Town Square; Phase I of the project is now under construction. This exciting space not only showcase art, but is an energetic gathering place for Burien’s citizens. B/ IAS is a working canvas being transformed by the efforts of both artists and the community throughout the year.

The art space celebrated its opening on Saturday, January 24th, 2009 with the installation of “The Passage.” The project will conclude a year later when the sculptures are removed.

B/ IAS is a collaboration between Ignition Northwest, the Burien Arts Commission, Urban Partners and GGLO.

Puyallup What? Who needs to drive down way there when, as part of Burien’s Oktoberfest, a carnival with rides, flashing lights, cotton candy, a mini-midway and much more will be right here in B-Town, in the lot next to the Interim Art Space!

Rides open at 2pm Thursday (Sept. 24th) and run to 11pm, then again on Friday/Saturday from Noon to 11pm and Sunday Sept. 27th from Noon to 7pm.

Here are photos taken Wednesday by Scott Schaefer as workers were setting things up:

Click to View Scott Schaefer’s Photo Slideshow

[NOTE TO ALL OVERLY-CONCERNED PARENTS: Since this is taking place at/near B/ IAS, be aware that the controversial naked female sculpture "Paradigm Shift" will be visible, so be sure to bring blindfolds.]