What's Up! Magazine

Vulcan

Vulcan

Great balls of fire! Some of the most skilled fire performers in North America are preparing for a show at Bellingham’s Lookout Arts Center on Monday, June 14. The performers will be traveling from the Vulcan, an Oakland, CA collection of artists’ studios renowned for its population of famous circus performers, musicians, and other artists. Among them is Bellingham-born circus artist Richard Hartnell (locally we know him as DJ Velveteen), who recently relocated to Oakland.

Brent Cole: Tell us about Vulcan. What is the project and how did it come about?

Richard Hartnell: Vulcan Studios is an old smelting plant in the decent part of East Oakland that’s been converted to 60-some loft apartments. Several of those units are populated by circus artists, DJs, producers, fire spinners, bands, painters, sculptors, and so on. There’s been a particular bloc of object manipulators (an umbrella term for prop performers: jugglers, fan dancers, poi spinners, hoopers, etc.)who’ve been progressively expanding at the Vulcan, and it’s really turning into a hot spot. Where the San Francisco Bay Area is a focal point for North American fire dance, the Vulcan is a focal point for Bay Area fire dance. So it’s not really a troupe, and the whole place isn’t totally populated by one giant posse of manipulators… yet.

BC: Are you coming up to Bellingham as part of a tour or a single show?

RH: I’m starting June with a trip to Folklife and the Portland Rose Festival, with some Bellingham time between. I’ll return to Oakland briefly, then come back for the Madskillz Juggling Festival in Vancouver, which ends a day before the Vulcan Fire Show. There’s that, then Vaudevillingham, then I’ll be back to the Bay to join the New Old Town Chautauqua tour for the rest of June.

BC: What draws you to playing with fire? How have you mastered the art of not burning yourself?

RH: I got into object manipulation through contact juggling – or contact ball, since there’s not actually any juggling going on with what I do. I’ve done contact fireball, which is basically a big burning wood sphere wrapped in burning wick, but it was more of a novelty. There’s also contact staff, which is kind of like contact ball only with a long pole. Staff is definitely a fire prop. I’ve been studying contact staff for about six months – it’ll probably be another year or so before I’m performing it seriously. But I’m learning contact staff more because of its synergy with contact ball – it’s about the nuances of the art form, not about lighting it on fire.

BC: Speaking of which, have you ever injured yourself?

RH: “Not burning yourself” is not really an issue, because you will. The trick is to not burn yourself badly.. There’s a very pronounced safety etiquette among fire performers, which makes sense if you think about it. It’s surprisingly easy to get seriously injured while performing with fire, though anyone who’s not stupid has heard the bad injury stories and knows how to avoid them (this is not to say there are no stupid fire performers).

I do still burn my elbows sometimes with my double staffs, and I recently lost a patch of hair off the back of my neck with my contact staff that I was going to clip anyway.

BC: What are some of the highlights of the show? What are some of the most difficult aspects of it?

RH: Honestly, the most difficult aspect is communicating how insane it is that this kind of talent is all coming together in Bellingham, which is also a huge highlight. I mean, the circus scene in Bellingham is really stunning for a city its size, and I’m really proud to get to show it off to my Bay friends. But bringing the SF Bay to Bellingham Bay really feels like I’m just coming back with this massive treat for everybody.

Vulcan performers will bring a combination of technical excellence and experimental aesthetics. Everyone in the show is a balls-out spinner with lots of really stunning and difficult moves. On the other hand, there are big innovations in the show as well, including some really amazing new innovations in partner fire spinning.

Due to a supremely lucky break, I’ve also just confirned Scottish spinner MCP for the show; she’s a living legend in the art of contact staff. This show is just a big pile of sheer talent – it’s highlights from beginning to end.

BC: How often do you work on Vulcan each week?

RH: Well, I’m pretty much solo right now. I’ve been working like crazy, performing on the street to stay afloat while I book private gigs and festivals. But there are lots of little troupes among the Vulcan performers, as well as one fairly big troupe, the seven-member Vulcan Crew. There are two open practice sessions a week at the Vulcan, and there are plenty of impromptu jams.

BC: How long has Vulcan been in the works?

RH: That’s a good question with several answers, none of which I know.

BC: How have the shows gone over? Do you think people are inherently draw to fire?

RH: Fire shows are pretty magical and pretty arcane. On my less cynical days, I quietly think that people have a natural curiosity that we’ve just grown to stifle after years of trauma. Therefore, I would say that people are inherently drawn to it. I know I am; I mean, it’s a chemical reaction that we can watch happening. Of course, people are afraid of it as well; they don’t even know that you can contact flames without being burned. That gives fire performers the advantage of an apparently “mystical” power of fire handling, a heavily invoked aesthetic.

BC: What’s the craziest thing that’s happened so far with Vulcan?

RH: From my current perspective, I’d say Firedrums. Firedrums is a weekend-long fire festival that takes place in the mountains of Santa Cruz. It draws fire performers from all over the world; because Firedrums is largely organized and promoted by Vulcan residents, many of the performers wind up crashing there. So for a couple of weeks, the Vulcan became invaded by world-class spinners from Switzerland, the UK, Ireland, France, Hungary, Japan, and Australia; it was a gonzo spinfest every day. Which was just buildup for the festival. They also stayed for a week or two afterward.

BC: On a personal note, how has the move to Oak-town treated you (good I assume)?

RH: Oakland is beautiful, and pretty sad. My part of town is pretty safe, but kind of run down. Twenty blocks east, there’s people getting shot all the time. I have a bunch of good friends over in West Oakland where there’s scads of crackheads, waist-high piles of trash littering the sidewalks, and gang injunctions. Still, I think it’s mostly about the kind of trouble you get in and the kind of profile you keep. I watch my back, but I don’t feel unsafe. Of course, San Francisco is gorgeous; I perform at the Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market, right on the Embarcadero, every Saturday. It’s pretty hard not to feel glamorous when you’re wow-ing tourists in San Francisco with the Bay Bridge as your backdrop.

Having a living like that has been wonderful and weird. It’s basically impossible to budget right now, since my income is so wildly unpredictable; my strokes of good or bad luck on the job make pretty significant differences in my hat. Right now I’m shooting for residencies and other regular kinds of gigs. And if anyone knows a good booking agent for circus in SF, lemme know. The business of having art as a full-time job is basically like job hunting every day. I spend a couple hours daily trying to line up gigs, book festivals, and find busking spots.

Still, no matter how stressful, wondering how I am about to go about making a living on art is one of the best feelings in the world.

BC: What do you like most about being in Oakland?

RH: The taco trucks.

Catch the Vulcan Fire Show June 14 at the Lookout Arts Center, 246 Old Hwy 99 N. The show starts at 9 p.m., is all-ages, and performers are suggesting a $10 donation. For more info, contact Hartnell at (360) 820-2306.