A conversation with Paul Morin on the tribal draw of the Fire and Ice Festival and his annual burning sculpture.
Paul Morin has been burning up with excitement about this year’s Fire and Ice Festival sculpture. “We are hoping to build a volcano, but maybe I shouldn’t even say that, but that’s a part of it”, says Morin, from his gallery on the Main Street in Alton.
“I always work on these [sculptures] with Brian Oates, a friend of mine, and we put a lot of planning [into this] … there’s a real interesting concept, and then we spend hours and hours developing thought behind it, which might be over the heads of people going, but it’s not about that. I find it’s the intention we put into it … I play around with the sacredness of things … and it filters into my art.”
“We’ve now done 12 of them, each of them with a big lofty idea that we pursue for a few months … we try to create a theme, and this year’s theme is Brian’s and it’s going to be really exciting … a hundred hours of welding is slowly bringing to life the internal component of this year’s fire sculpture. We always think about the upcoming year and what it represents, so it will fully represent the year 2025 in that way.”
Paul and his friend Brian Oates have been organizing the incredible “burn sculptures” for the Festival at the Alton Mill since 2012, an event that has grown from 200 to 3200 spectators in the last decade.
“The beauty of having The Alton Mill as the venue is that they’ve always given us the opportunity to do whatever we want with the Festival … the idea of it, the legendary acclaim of it. Sometimes the actual burn will only last from half an hour to 45 minutes, but in that time, we’re creating more and more of a spectacle. We’ve moved it [this year] to an upper parking lot, if you can imagine a big amphitheatre surrounded by trees, let’s say about 150 yards in diameter. For this year, the only thing I’ll mention is that I’m using that entire bowl, that backdrop, hundreds of feet, and the trees above it.”
“The wonderful thing about this gathering in the winter, in the darkest, coldest month, is that there is a ritualistic aspect that people don’t even necessarily realize they’re taking part in. There really is this thing that happens when people gather amongst strangers, but for collective focus. So, everyone’s there to see and celebrate this thing, but they don’t necessarily know their neighbour.
“It’s really cool, because there’s a tribal element for people participating in a bonfire in any way … in these expanding groups that we’re getting, I’m finding it really, really exhilarating. Those charged minutes to when we actually light it … the build-up … people are actually starting to arrive three hours before, so I provide a great soundtrack as part of the buildup. There’s a dramatic beginning to the process as people are arriving, and that seems built into the tribal effect.
What this recalls is something so fundamental to the human experience, that the Alton Mill and Paul Morin are recreating on a bigger and bigger scale each year.
“So, when I mean tribal, it’s connecting us to our original small groups being connected by fire in front of the cave. There’s some genetic response that harks back to the communities created by fire … and the origins of all religion, bringing light to the darkness … and the origins of the universe.
“I think it’s fascinating on so many levels. Another thing I’m really happy about is the audience we draw. It’s certainly young and old, but now it’s every ethnicity- and that’s the beauty of the Toronto area.”
Each burn has been explained at length to the fire marshal three weeks in advance, and a private company is contracted to be on site during the event itself. “The design is put through the fire marshal’s office, and all precautions are taken that night,” Morin assures.
The exponential growth of the Festival over the past fourteen years has also resulted in some real benefits to the community. The Festival and burn works on a donation basis.
“The loose number that I heard from last year is they raised something like $50,000 for the local food bank and Headwaters Arts. Because we had such a good turnout last year with record donations, they were able to put the money towards various charities. We felt really good about that. Not only are they covering their [expenses] … but they are now actually able to do things with that money, and that’s just so great to see.”
The week leading up to the fire sculpture is full of unique programming at the Alton Mill, so be sure to check out the schedule on the website as it becomes available, including a large ticketed event. “There’s a big spectacle that day,” Morin concludes, “of which we are really just the big, fiery outside dynamic part…we’re excited, because the discussions are now, ‘should we have more programming because there are so many people there?’, ‘what else should this be?’
“It’s growing in a unique way, I think,” Morin concludes.
WRITTEN BY: KIRA WRONSKA DORWARD | PHOTOGRAPHY: SAMANTHA ROUTLEDGE
