When I first became involved with the suspension community (right at the turn of the century) I found an astonishing amount of beauty in the experience and ritual of it all. However, looking back at those old photos it’s hard to see them as beautiful with the HIDEOUS hardware store rigs we used and the perfectly functional, but severely unaesthetic, way we connected the person to the aforementioned rigging.

Then, out of nowhere, I started seeing the rigging evolve into an artform all of it’s own. I believe the first truly artistic rigging I ever personally saw was done by Oliver Gilson (yes the same Gilson responsible for designing the modern suspension hook of choice). I recall him doing these absolutely gorgeous suspensions where the rigging was done with a ton of 550 cord dynamically rigged to a single point. All of the sudden the rigging had become as integral of a part of the suspensions aesthetic as the suspendee themself.

Now, I am pleased to say, that same artistic sense of rigging is becoming the norm in the modern suspension community.  For instance, check out this gorgeous suspensions put on by  the Skindependent Suspension team which runs the long cording not only to multiple points, but to multiple rigs spread out across independent mounting locations.

Eden Thomson, of Skindependent filled me in on the story behind Kyrsten Wallace’s suspension.

This was Kyrsten’s first suspension after an amazing weight loss of 20 kgs  (approximately 42 pounds). I have never seen her so happy with any suspension ever. It was a very proud moment and a real sense of accomplishment for her! This has opened up a lot more possibilities in terms of suspension styles for her knowing now how easy this was for her.

 

Photo Credit: Martin Booth, Light Fantastic