The Ocean Beach Pier in San Diego is the largest concrete pier on the West Coast, extending almost two thousand feet into an often epic ocean, the kind of misty scene that deserves a soundtrack fit for a moon landing. Third Eye Perception Flesh Suspension (thirdeyeperception.com; who you may remember for the baby-bouncing superman) chose this modern yet primal landscape as the site for an ideal guerrilla suspension. If you like the picture, don’t miss the video.
Ewigstahl did this guerrilla suspension at the Johanniterbridge in his hometown of Basel, Switzerland… They were expecting to have police or other problems and be up for five minutes at the most, but everything went well, and he managed to swing for half an hour — click for more.
This was done by Tara with the good folks at Rites of Passage. It’s rigged to an electrical tower, and was her first suspension of this type. I love the photo…
c/o Nu Ethix, Ascension, and Rites of Passage:
I was thinking about the “musical arc” of suspension, and if we’re going to compare the early suspension movement to all the little rock’n’roll bands that sprouted up across the Western World in the 1950s and 1960s, then I think that some of the suspension masters today — Havve of Pain Solution and Wings of Desire being a prime example — are in their prog rock phase. Prog rock was characterized with an absurd level of musical technical expertise and composing complexity that’s never been outdone in popular music, and I think suspension today is much like that — extreme technical feats, with complex and beautiful rigging that’s harder and harder to outdoe. I was about to wonder whether some sort of punk rock renaissance was next in suspension, a rejection of all this engineer-artistry and replacing it with guerrilla two-hook suicide suspension with a couple of shark hooks, but then I realized that one of the great things about suspension is that it’s not a matter of changing and exclusive tastes — it’s a matter of broadening tastes. Havve still plays in his garage punk band on the side while noodling away with the Musical Box-era Genesis of the suspension scene in Italy!!!
Rambling aside, I really do continue getting blown away by every new suspension photo set I see (these are from Christianne’s collection) from the Italian Suscon — whenever the best minds in suspension get together at these events (and a big thank you to Allen Falkner and his Dallas Suscon for setting that in motion), amazing and inspiring things always happen.
I am so jealous of Håvve Fjell and Wings of Desire for their amazing new suspension van, the ultimate guerrilla suspension vehicle. Those with keen memories may remember me planning on building something similar on top of my monster truck for bridge suspensions — just drive onto a bridge, swivel the arm over the side, and boom, you’re ready to go — back in the winter of 2003, but like so many of my projects, it never happened. Well, Håvve actually made it happen!!! So awesome. Here are some pictures of it being taken for a test flight, photos by Helene Fjell. Don’t forget to order their amazing new book of suspension photos, Learning To Fly — watch for details on how to get your copy at wingsofdesire.org.
That last photo is the view from inside the van by the way!
Speaking of guerrilla suspension, the Cadillac Ranch (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_Ranch for more info) may not be quite as idyllic as a diving structure over the water at sunset, but half-buried cars covered in graffiti in the desert around Amarillo, Texas, is so very American. Never thought I’d have seen a suspension done between the cars, but I am today proved very wrong and happily surprised about it — these come from (and I apologize if I get this wrong) Skin Mechanic Suspension.
And now speaking of suspension in America, I wanted to mention that HOOKED is hosting the SUSPENSION MECCA Omaha Suscon from August 31st to September 3rd, which includes lectures from suspension luminaries including Allen Falkner, Havve Fjell, and Steve Joyner. For more information follow this link: hooked13.com/suspension-mecca-2012/
A beautiful image of Lasse Marius suspending with Wings of Desire (I’m sure you already knew that from seeing their iconic rig) over the water. But you must also see the second photo (which is of Tom-Erik Johansen suspending at the same location) to put it into context — what a wonderful guerrilla suspension re-purposing of a diving board (which would be fun for its intended use as well)!
Zombies are one thing. But nowhere in any of my outbreak plans have I taken into account flying zombies.
That flying zombie is JakeMindsnared, doing a guerrilla superman suspension at a zombie walk.
