Burning Man: Finley Fryer

The Plastic Chapel is an architectural sculpture constructed largely of recycled plastic. At the front there is an open stage with a black background and a fiber-optic lighting installation. It was created in 1998 in collaboration with a group of friends and artists in Dunsmuir, California. It is both a monumental and intimate creation that is lit from within at night, glowing like a giant domed cube of stained glass. Its multipurpose usage fits perfectly with the wide spectrum of participation that is so much an integral part of the Burning Man festival.

The original impetus for the chapel stems from a period in my life when I worked as an itinerant stained-glass repairman. In the process of restoring damaged windows I kept ending up with broken fragments of glass. So at night in the hotel room I'd put them together with silicone. The windows grew out of this process, and over the course of my career the glass gave way to plastic as the sculptures got larger and larger.

The 11 windows installed in the chapel were created over a 10-year period. Each window has its own title and story to tell. For me the five larger arched windows hinted at something to come---to someday build a structure to house these windows---a sort of wild roadside attraction. But it was a dream that remained in need of a physical location. So in 1998, on a trip to the Channel islands off the United Kingdom, I crossed paths with a creation that would resurrect and put a new resolve to getting on with this dream. On the Island of Gurnsey there is a small miraculous creation by a monk called the Little Chapel, which is made of shells, broken ceramics and years of hard work. It was all I needed to get me thinking a little more seriously about my own vision.

When a local nonprofit arts organization, Shasta Mountain Playhouse, contemplated the creation of a stage for Burning Man 1998 it was the perfect catalyst. The idea that it would be portable was a double-edged sword. On the one hand it freed the Plastic Chapel from the confines of a permanent piece of real estate. But it also created a whole slew of engineering and artistic hurdles to overcome.

Although the Plastic Chapel is first and foremost a work of art, it is also a portable venue for performance artists' of all types. At Burning Man the stage was used for everything from musical performances to weddings, poetry slams to extemporaneous contests. Shows ran from dusk to late into the night. The Plastic Chapel was not burned at the end of Burning Man, instead it has been exhibited across the United States.

Finley Fryer
5825 Sacramento Avenue
Dunsmuir, CA
96025
(530) 235 2236

E-mail: finleyfryer@snowcrest.net
Web: www.snowcrest.net/finleyfryer