Ring of Fire: Continuations
By E.T. Russian
[Title screen]
The words Ring of Fire on the screen.
A black and white animation made of ink drawings and collaged images from the original Ring of Fire zines and Anthology.
[01: Aditya and Char]
Clouds float above the Olympic Mountains. A vagina cloud shape becomes a spraying skunk. A leaf with a scar along its spine.
The mountains are textured like pills in blister packs.
The undammed Lower Elwha River flows below, surrounded by evergreen forest.
Aditya, a cyclist sporting shades and a sleek helmet, grips the pedals of a recumbent hand cycle, racing confidently along the river.
Resting her head against his, Char dances next to him in her wheelchair. Her face tilts gently upwards, her arm outstretched, arching to the sky.
Above her, a block print of Wobbly Dance founders, Eric and Yulia, in conversation with each other in their power wheelchairs.
Below them, a one-legged dancer, Homer Avila, tumbles in relation to the earth.
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[Transition]
In the centre of a black screen, a bundle of rope forms an infinity symbol.
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[02: Gardening]
Peta’s face peeks out mischievously from a bunch of kale and beets.
Hir eyes glint behind thick glasses, hir goatee and lip piercing, smiling.
We garden in the tall grasses.
Peta kneeling in a black hoodie and Afro-Caribbean flag hat, weeds a flower bed full of knives.
I’m in my wheelchair, watering the next bed.
Wiley, the dog with white fur and soft black ears, lounges, belly exposed.
Bookshelves and record albums surround us.
Lush flowers, gargantuous in bloom.
Clipped drawings of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo’s trolley accident and Olympic medallist Wilma Rudolph, hang out with us in the garden.
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[Transition]
Two studded leather cock rings connected form an infinity symbol
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[03: Protest]
Aditya, in his power chair, wields a camera photographing a crowded protest. He wears a keffiyeh.
His phone, water bottle and medications carabinered to the side of his armrest.
The crowd holds a banner with watermelons and a dove holding an olive branch in its beak.
Overlooking the scene, a row of police officers, drawn in outline only, like a row of teeth. Batons in hand, faces hidden behind police helmets.
Above surveillant eyes with furrowed brows.
Below, a single eye. In its pupil, a muscular Tom of Finland model flexes.
One protester with locks holds a Palestinian
flag. A child holds a sign of a heart with wings. A Hasidic Jewish man in a fur hat and prayer shawl flanks a speaker in hijab, raising a megaphone to the sky, leading a chant.
A pair of hairy legs descend from above. One has a wooden peg leg, the other a combat boot.
Amidst the protest, a man sits holding a fake leg. He is bent over worshiping it with his mouth.
An arm from above presses his face into the leg. ‘Shine my foot’, it commands.
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[Transition]
A snake eating its tail creates an infinity symbol.
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[04: ICU]
A patient lays unconscious in a hospital bed, his chest and legs uncovered.
He is prodded by a team of doctors in white coats surrounding him. Care is absent from their demeanour. The attending doctor is ‘teaching’ his residents. He pulls the patient’s gown away, applying a stethoscope to the chest. A resident stands by, clipboard in hand.
Two gargoyles apparate at either end of the bed, hissing and snarling protectively. Pale flames wreathe their wings and fangs.
Artist Matuschka presides at the head of the bed, the right side of her chest flat, a scar and a circle with a line through it highlighting her mastectomy. A gauze bandage wraps around her head and neck, billowing around the patient.
Above, the Congolese rock band Staff
Benda Bilili are illuminated by stage lights.
Guitarists and singers shred, some in wheelchairs, some with crutches, dressed in dapper suits and hats.
At the foot of the bed, the Venus de Milo bears witness. She is naked, highlighting the curve of her abdomen and breasts. Her arms are broken off. Rough stone.
Below her, the head of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, with her signature bob haircut, floats within a mirrored infinity room.
Polka dots reflect endlessly in her hair and the glass.
Next to the bed, painter Chuck Close sits in his wheelchair. An arm splint positions his paintbrush securely. His left arm is raised, ready to make the first brushstroke.
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[Transition]
A pair of handcuffs form an infinity symbol.
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[05: Erotic Ritual]
In the center, a dancer suspended upside down by rope.
Their long, dark hair falls toward the floor, their arms and hands outstretched.
Bondage ropes knot around their chest, hips and wheelchair.
The dancer is encircled by others, moving rhythmically. Everyone is feeling themselves and each other.
Candles light this ritual.
Thighs spread. Asses ride the air. Hands connect in prayer. Curls toss.
The vibes are right, and they are riding the wave.
One dancer in a sexy handstand. Another kneeling.
Limbs missing. Pinup poses and fake legs. A removable showerhead. A commode.
Scantily clad. Power chairs and leather. Bikinis and scars flaunted.
Big orgy energy. Spiritual.
Revelatory.
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[Transition]
A magnetic field diagram resembles an infinity symbol.
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[06: Snoqualmie Falls]
Flames rise from a burning hospital, smoke billowing up toward the sky.
Mama Cax, a fashion model and cancer survivor who passed away in 2019, poses in a bikini and sunglasses to the right of the fire.
She leans on a crutch, her left leg missing from the hip down. A long scar runs up her abdomen.
One hand on her bald head, her posture radiates power and confidence.
She basks in the heat of the flames.
Kusama’s polka dots transition between realities from the blazing medical facility to Snoqualmie Falls, cascading down into clouds of vapor before flowing downstream.
At the base of the waterfall, a bathtub tap sprays water between the thighs of the naked torso.
In the clouds above, floats my friend, Disability Justice activist Stacy Park Milbern, who passed away in 2020, in a power chair wearing a backwards baseball cap.
And Homer Avila pirouettes on one leg and graceful circles through the aether.
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[Transition]
A digital numeral 8 creates an infinity symbol.
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[07: Wheelchair clinic]
Here we are in wheelchair clinic.
My colleague Clark and I are working with a client to design him a new wheelchair.
Clark is in his power chair. He holds a wooden slide ruler and a tenodesis grip, moving his wrists forward and back to manipulate it, carefully taking each measurement down to the quarter inch.
I am knelt down, making adjustments to the client’s footplate. My hair tied up in a bun. My prosthetic ankles are visible above my shoes.
The client, in a dapper cap and scarf, hooks his arm behind the wheelchair push handle for support.
On the floor, his service dog rests contentedly against the wheel of his chair.
Floating around this scene:
A three-legged dog jumps through a burning ring of fire.
A tangle of hairs knotted in the front wheels of a manual wheelchair. Clark and I named these ‘caster clamps’.
Prosthetic leg parts.
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[Transition]
Two wheels connected form an infinity symbol.
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[08: Fountain]
An elegant water fountain spreads upward and outward.
Children, some crawling, some sitting, some in wheelchairs, some on crutches, splash, dance and play, showered from above.
The spirit of joy and abundance is captured in the element of water.
Surrounding this jubilant scene are vintage photographs of my grandma Lois and her sister Hazel as kids.
Below this artist Frida Kahlo and teenage me are kneeling and embracing as I rest my head against her chest, seeking comfort.
The severed ends of my lower legs are sutured with string, loose threads dangling. Kahlo’s right leg is similarly sutured.
Nearby, a naked woman lies on her back in labor, supported by a midwife and doula.
Her curly black hair flowing like water, her belly and breasts swollen, her legs and mid-thigh and scars raised as she prepares to give birth.
The doula, missing fingers, clasps hands with the pregnant woman - coaching her.
Matriarchs Frida Kahlo and Lorenza Böttner preside.
Kahlo in traditional Tehuana dress. A cape richly embroidered with flowers wraps her shoulders, her face surrounded by a ring of lace and crown of leaves.
Artist Lorenza Böttner, a trans woman with no arms, sits cross-legged, cradling her baby in her lap.
She feeds the child from a bottle she holds nimbly between her shoulder and shin.
Her long, thick hair falls towards the baby.