Is your Giant or Beast still active or has it retired?
Still active
Description: The Hazard Bears are the alter-egos of ‘broken folk’ duo Lunatraktors. The base layer is a large crochet bedspread with bundles of four colours of hazard tape looped through. Each bear requires about 3km of hazard tape. The armature is made from large wooden embroidery hoops, woven through the crochet. Felt pads are bound onto the hoops to distribute the weight. The first bear was made using hazard tape from the creepy maypole in our Rigs of the Times music video.
Is there is a folktale connected to your Giant or Beast?
Striped like the costumes of court jesters or pantomime characters, hazard tape is always in motion, constantly dancing in the breeze. Its purpose is to form mobile, improvised boundaries, ward off danger and guide movement. Its uses are temporary, but the plastic it is made from never decays. Littering the landscape, forgotten scraps flutter among branches, or draw unseen lines through landfill sites.
It is said a breaking heart can fracture time itself. At sites of intense catastrophe, or layered, repeated suffering, cracks can open a fold in spacetime, a vortex. And if enough people pay attention to that site — to investigate, to grieve, to visit and make offerings of ribbons or flowers, candles or pictures — the vortex can awaken. It can begin to gather to itself scraps and rags blown on the wind, and take on a form and life of its own, and move about the world. Hungry for suffering and catastrophe, these spirits are drawn to the sites of other accidents and atrocities, like moths to street lights. And as they grow, gathering up remnants of hazard tape as they pass by, they become more and more present, more and more visible. Until at last they become the Hazard Bears.
Often misunderstood as causing accidents, or accused of stealing children, the Hazard Bears are in reality benevolent spirits. While they do feed on anguish, they do so to relieve suffering and hold space for grief. Sometimes they can sniff out risk before disaster strikes, warding off accidents and misfortune, bringing good luck. But more and more disasters occur all the time; mostly they arrive too late, and can only sing lament, or dance, trying to provide some comfort at the vigil.
Have you seen the Hazard Bears, or the scraps they leave behind? Have you witnessed a grief vortex forming? Help ‘broken folk’ research duo Lunatraktors track these mysterious creatures by sending any documentation, or reporting any sightings to: lunatraktors@gmail.com
What was the first event the Giant/Beast attended?
A protest against the Stonehenge tunnel.
Any tales of outings/visits/strange and wonderful occurrences or special memories that should go down in History
The Hazard Bears have been sighted across the British Isles, Ireland and Europe. They can sometimes be seen at music festivals (Smugglers, Greenbelt, Queer Spirit, Fire in the Mountain, Glastonbury, Hebden Bridge, Footsbarn-en-Fete, Greens Scythe Fair), folklore societies (Todmorden, Norwich, East Anglia), theatres (English Theatre Berlin, Margate Theatre Royal, Norwich Puppet Theatre, Tom Thumb Theatre, Labo des Arts, Toulouse), museums and galleries (British Museum, Staffordshire St, Field System, Maidstone Museum, Musee Deny Pueche) and many ancient sites and medieval cities. Sightings are particularly common in Hookland and surrounding the Museum of Roadside Magic.
How is it stored? An army surplus kit bag covered in embroidered patches.
What can you tell us about how it is carried and by who? Usually only one person per bear, but sometimes children hide inside too
If you notice an error in this information, want to ask for additional details to be added or request the removal of any image or information, please contact us quoting the reference number above via email in the footer.
The Hazard Bears
Location: Roving
Year / Period Created
2020
Description:
The Hazard Bears are the alter-egos of ‘broken folk’ duo Lunatraktors. The base layer is a large crochet bedspread with bundles of four colours of hazard tape looped through. Each bear requires about 3km of hazard tape. The armature is made from large wooden embroidery hoops, woven through the crochet. Felt pads are bound onto the hoops to distribute the weight. The first bear was made using hazard tape from the creepy maypole in our Rigs of the Times music video.
Striped like the costumes of court jesters or pantomime characters, hazard tape is always in motion, constantly dancing in the breeze. Its purpose is to form mobile, improvised boundaries, ward off danger and guide movement. Its uses are temporary, but the plastic it is made from never decays. Littering the landscape, forgotten scraps flutter among branches, or draw unseen lines through landfill sites.
It is said a breaking heart can fracture time itself. At sites of intense catastrophe, or layered, repeated suffering, cracks can open a fold in spacetime, a vortex. And if enough people pay attention to that site — to investigate, to grieve, to visit and make offerings of ribbons or flowers, candles or pictures — the vortex can awaken. It can begin to gather to itself scraps and rags blown on the wind, and take on a form and life of its own, and move about the world. Hungry for suffering and catastrophe, these spirits are drawn to the sites of other accidents and atrocities, like moths to street lights. And as they grow, gathering up remnants of hazard tape as they pass by, they become more and more present, more and more visible. Until at last they become the Hazard Bears.
Often misunderstood as causing accidents, or accused of stealing children, the Hazard Bears are in reality benevolent spirits. While they do feed on anguish, they do so to relieve suffering and hold space for grief. Sometimes they can sniff out risk before disaster strikes, warding off accidents and misfortune, bringing good luck. But more and more disasters occur all the time; mostly they arrive too late, and can only sing lament, or dance, trying to provide some comfort at the vigil.
Have you seen the Hazard Bears, or the scraps they leave behind? Have you witnessed a grief vortex forming? Help ‘broken folk’ research duo Lunatraktors track these mysterious creatures by sending any documentation, or reporting any sightings to: lunatraktors@gmail.com
How is it stored?
An army surplus kit bag covered in embroidered patches.
What can you tell us about how it is carried and by who?
Usually only one person per bear, but sometimes children hide inside too
Website: lunatraktors.com
Ref: 36 BFG
If you notice an error in this information, want to ask for additional details to be added or request the removal of any image or information, please contact us quoting the reference number above via email in the footer.
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