Paul Addis

Paul Addis (1970-2012) was a San Francisco attorney, playwright, and performance artist. Well known in San Francisco for performing his own original plays, Addis attended the Burning Man festival several times and gained broader notoriety in 2007 after setting fire to the 'Burning Man' effigy at the festival in protest several days before the event's organizers had planned to burn it. He was arrested and jailed in Nevada for the act.[1] Addis was the subject of an interview and profile in Wired Magazine in 2007.[2]

A former intellectual property attorney, Addis quit law around 2000 to pursue a career as an artist. A prolific performance artist, Addis broadcast a public affairs program on San Francisco radio station Radio Valencia[3] and wrote and performed a number of plays, including works based on the film Blade Runner. His play "Gonzo, A Brutal Chrysalis" based on the writings of American author Hunter S. Thompson, was favorably reviewed in SF Weekly[4] and was subsequently performed in Portland, OR as well.[5]

In 2007, Addis burned the iconic 'Burning Man' statue as an act of protest against the direction he felt the event was taking, four days before the event's organizers were scheduled to burn it themselves. Working during a lunar eclipse after 2am on Tuesday morning, Addis coordinated with a 15-minute shutdown of the lights illuminating the structure. Because of unforeseen difficulties in climbing and igniting the Man, Addis was still on the structure when the lights came back on. He finally managed to set fire to the statue, but was identified and pursued as he fled the scene. The fire was put out in about half an hour, but the structure was damaged beyond repair. Burning Man board member Crimson Rose was allegedly overheard on an open radio channel saying "I want that asshole arrested, and I want the first shot.".[6]

Although they had planned to burn the wooden structure four days later, Burning Man organizers pressed charges against Addis for burning it early and rapidly built a replacement 'Man' to burn at the end of the week as originally scheduled. Addis was arrested and booked on arson charges in Lovelock, NV, leading to an iconic mug shot with his face painted in bright colors. The company that ran the Burning Man event, Black Rock City LLC, sent board member Will Roger from San Francisco to Nevada to testify against Addis in court. Roger also provided the court with documents showing the cost of damages (including hastily building the replacement 'Burning Man' statue) exceeded the $5,000 level necessary for Addis to be charged with a felony. Addis was convicted and sentenced to up to four years in prison, and banned from Burning Man.

While awaiting trial for the Burning Man arson, Addis was arrested in Seattle on a weapons charge. Soon after, he was arrested again in San Francisco near Grace Cathedral with a backpack full of fireworks. He denied that he planned to destroy or otherwise harm Grace Cathedral. He pleaded no contest to misdemeanor fireworks possession and was sentenced to attend counseling.[7]

Following Addis' 2008 arson sentencing hearing in Nevada, Burning Man co-founder John Law (who left the festival permanently after 1996) wrote in a blog on laughingsquid.com that "Paul Addis' early burning of the corporate logo of the Burning Man event last year was the single most pure act of 'radical self expression' to occur at this massive hipster tail-gate party in over a decade."[8]

After being released on parole from prison in 2010, Addis gave an interview that became the subject of two articles in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, as well as the book "Tribes of Burning Man" by Stephen T. Jones. SF Gate quoted Addis as saying his arson "This was not an act of vengeance, it was an act of love. Love for the ethos that is fading at Burning Man. There's no sense of spontaneity. No sense of 'F- it, let's burn this down.'"

Addis's last solo play, "Dystopian Veneer," which expressed themes of the artist's outrage regarding the commercialization of San Francisco, was previewed in SF Weekly in 2010[9] and on the web site Laughing Squid[10]

Addis struggled with mental illness for years following his release from prison. He was killed after jumping in front of a train at the Embarcadero BART station in San Francisco on October 27, 2012.[11] San Francisco city Supervisor John Avalos adjourned that week's San Francisco Board of Supervisors meeting in the memory of Addis, making these public comments about the artist's life and work:[12]

  • Addis was a San Francisco performance artist and playwright who was best known from 2007's Burning Man when he lit the Man on fire.
  • Addis wrote and performed several one-man plays, including Dystopian Veneer and Gonzo, A Brutal Chrysalis.
  • After years of struggling with mental health issues, Addis took his own life the past weekend. He was forty-two.
  • Addis' controversial act was viewed by some as a dangerous act of arson and by others as a subversive protest of how Burning Man had strayed from its core principles.
  • Addis served two years in a Nevada prison for burning the Man.
  • On this day when we're commemorating Mental Health Awareness month, I think it's appropriate to recognize the loss of Paul Addis, and recognize how our mental health and criminal justice systems failed him, and how they fail so many others who struggle with mental health issues.
— John Avalos

References

  1. ↑ "San Francisco Bay Guardian - Looking for a Guardian article?".
  2. ↑ "A Fiery Q&A With the Prankster Accused of Burning the Man - WIRED". www.wired.com.
  3. ↑ "Radio Valencia :: Inactive Podcasts". www.radiovalencia.fm.
  4. ↑ "Gonzo: A Brutal Chrysalis". SF Weekly.
  5. ↑ "Photos of Gonzo, A Brutal Chrysalis". 26 March 2007.
  6. ↑ Dj, The Jaded Gay (28 August 2007). "SFScene: Arson of The Man at Burning Man!".
  7. ↑ "SF Man Accused Of Attempting To Burn Grace Cathedral Released - SF Public Defender". sfpublicdefender.org.
  8. ↑ Jones, Steven T. (8 June 2017). "The Tribes of Burning Man: How an Experimental City in the Desert is Shaping the New American Counterculture". CCC Publishing – via Google Books.
  9. ↑ "Paul Addis, Who Torched the Burning Man, Has New Solo Show - By - SF Weekly". 7 April 2010.
  10. ↑ "Dystopian Veneer, New Performance by Paul Addis". 31 March 2010.
  11. ↑ Goldman, Chelena (30 October 2012). "BART victim revealed as artist Paul Addis".
  12. ↑ Fisher, Matt. "Paul Addis, playwright and Burning Man arsonist, dies - 48 hills".
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