DRKHRT: The Duality of Love

DRKHRT is a large scale sculpture that is meant to express the joy that Love brings us, while reminding us of the pain that only someone or something we love can inflict. It stands 20 feet tall and is composed of 18" metal frame cubes. These cubes are hollow, but a portion of them are sheathed in glass which is engraved with anonymous love letters. The love letters are written by and with participants at the Love Burn Art Festival as well as in Boston at Artisan’s Asylum and from local Allston-Brighton residents.

In addition to the engravings, the sculpture will also contain flame effects (“poofers”) as well as sound and custom lighting. These dynamic components will help remind us that only those who we love can truly burn us.

Community Build

Sign up for the mailing list

DRKHRT will be built at Artisan’s Asylum with the involvement of our maker community. The primary goal of our build is to come together, make new friends, and learn new skills that could potentially be used to better our careers such as welding, electronics, plumbing, and of course the value of lifting heavy things. I will attempt to create a “pit of success” where it is easier to succeed than to fail. This will be comprised of a combination of: Mini-classes on various skillsets required on the build such as welding, quality assurance, general fabrication, flame effect design and construction, and glass working. Procedures and documentation that provide anyone who wants to participate with enough information to get started and a way to verify their work when complete. Hands on training from a number of experts

Upcoming Workshops and Volunteer Opportunities

We’ve received the first batch of materials and have been busy working out the processes for fabrication. This is now just about complete and tomorrow, fabrication will begin to ramp up to high gear. To support the effort we will host two workshops weekly (no cost to participants):

Workshops

NFPA 160: Flame effects in front of an audience. Participants should expect 4 nights of collaborative training starting with safety, physical properties of propane, and overview of the project progressing through hands-on fabrication. Attendance all 4 nights (after work Thursdays beginning 1/9) is required and is limited to 5 participants. Reach out to me directly if you are interested.

Intro to Glass Coldworking: Participants will get an intro to cutting and grinding glass as well as bonding glass to various metal substrates with UV adhesive. This is more of an ad-hoc setup so feel free to drop by after work on any Wednesday!

Now that fabrication is underway, we could use a hand in the metal shop on the non-workshop days. I’m over there for the better part of my days. Tasks that are available include:

• CNC setup and operation (entry-level)
• General metal fabrication, grinding, MIG welding, TIG welding
• Metal deburring (entry-level)
• Steel pickling and oiling (entry-level)
• Steel hot waxing (entry-level)
• Sheet metal shearing (entry-level)
• Flyer making
• Sticker design + making
• General hanging out and organizing bolts :D

Calendar