Steampunk at the Paralympic Closing Ceremony ...

siride June 17, 2022

Well now I learn something new once again – as I never thought I’d write about Steampunk! Perhaps I should have joined Alex’ genre fest ... but I see there’s 182 of you - - - have fun!

Electric Storm on the Crop Circles - let the Ceremony begin
c/o The Evening Standard

The steampunk theme at the Paralympic Closing ceremony was to celebrate all the athletes (4,200 paralympians from 164 nations), performers, creators who are prepared to “CAN DO “...

... including those who can wield a screwdriver, blowtorch sheet metal into exhaust pipes, take something apart then putting together a cranky machine ... rethinking life?

Mad Max and the Fisher King c/o The Sun

Steampunk is a genre that incorporates elements of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, horror and speculative fiction – it is a right melting pot of technology, art fashion and design - no wonder I had trouble understanding this genre?!

This Festival of Flame sure showed us recycled parts ... it was like Da Vinci’s machines being automated with gears ... cranking around the stadium ...

Man of Fire towed by Man of Steel
c/o Herald Sun of Australia

... interspersed with sparks flying here and there, health and safety bods with fire extinguishers, pyrotechnics ahoy – reflecting our British pagan roots ...

... the festivals of Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer being depicted in this cacophony of colour, spare parts, and spurting dragon fire ...

The cavalcade - The Evening Standard

The Times’ newspaper gave me a breakdown of ‘Behind the Story’ – where it describes these fantaristic machines ... a motorcade as an ode to recycling ...

... component parts fished out of the sea, dug for in scrapheaps and salvaged from Devon beaches. Each truck was a hodgepodge of different bits of “rubbish” with long backstories, welded together:

Clocks truck – a 20 metre crane arm s the clock hand, this truck was made out of an old fire engine. Its creators took inspiration from Isambard Brunel, Chaplin’s Modern Times, industrialisation and Steampunk Victoriana (a la Jules Verne);

Winter truck – Scottish thistles blow torched out of sheet steel and 200 exhaust pipes representing global warming made up the truck, surrounded by a twisted Dickensian garden with railings salvaged from Kensal Rise cemetery.

Clamposaurus – A hydraulic dinosaur, his body made of 25 BMW frames welded together, his teeth and head from agricultural machinery, and his tail was a slashed tractor tyre.

Grasshopper – this was made out of aeroplane parts: the back legs were a pair of glider fuselages, the wings were those of several light aircraft, and the head was made out of a Gazelle helicopter embedded with a trampoline.

Fish - An East German army truck rescued after the Cold War and debris from the Devon coastline were adorned with 600 graffiti-sprayed hub caps by 120 school children, selected from the Olympic host boroughs.

Steamship – A ship cobbled together out of old parchment maps, a bicycle chain for a bowsprit, a telescopic mast made out of an army radar system, and wrought iron salvaged from the burnt-out west pier in Brighton.

The Grasshopper c/o MSN News

The Closing Ceremony paid homage to the eccentricities of the Britain – we had crop circles ... the Monty Python-esque parade of Mad Max style vehicles ... the music and songs by Cold Play evocating the steampunk madness of the evening ...

... yet celebrating the achievements of any disabled performer in their ability to adapt, manipulate, meld, make-do ... and all the while achieve by moving inexorably towards their goal ...