Kinetic Art, Flamethrowers and Mostly Mean, but Sometimes Friendly Robots

I have been fortunate to collaborate on numerous large-scale and/or dangerous art projects over the years. Robochrist Industries is a group I continue to call family. My contributions were primarily in prop design and construction as well as some basic mechanical maintenance and operation. 

The enduring friendships from that time continue to lead to exciting projects outside of my primary field of painting, where I have the opportunities to contribute my skills, learn new ones, shake off the isolation of the studio and get back in touch with my gritty underbelly.

This subject of this video is pretty shocking for a lot of people. But for me, it is a jolting reminder of just how free we were ten years ago. These types of performances just don't happen much any more.

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From Youtube:

"Christian Ristow's Robochrist Industries executed its last robot performance at Coachella in 2005. The title of the performance was STUNT, which has at least three meanings in the context of this show. In 2005, Coachella forbade Robochrist Industries to use fire for some unknown reason. In response, we put together a show that was much more dangerous and ridiculous than if we HAD used fire, which included a live head-on-collision with two cars, and approximately 110 gallons of fake blood being pumped into the air. Hence the saying: 'Blood is the new Fire!'"