The art installation Close to Home is my visual narrative on the breadth of man’s relationship with fire. Learning to use fire was central to the rise of civilization, yet fire in the wild also lives on, uncontrolled and increasingly threatening modern life.
Fire seasons worldwide continue to grow longer, hotter, more destructive and more deadly with each decade. In just the last decade, Bay Area wildfires have had devastating impacts on both man and the environment, burning entire towns and neighborhoods, thousands of structures, and millions of trees, killed hundreds of people and uncountable wildlife, and endangered us all with smoke and haze for months each year.
Similar scenarios are playing out worldwide, and man isn’t innocent in this growing threat. Our contributions to climate change, how we use land and natural resources, and where we choose to live all play a role in ever longer and more destructive fire seasons.
And still, the intimate flames of our campfires and fireplaces embody the very essence of comfort, family and friendship. Sharing stories and laughter around the fire pit are an early memory for many; stoking a fire on the hearth has fueled many a couple’s romance. More practically, we rely on combustion to fuel everything from heating and cooking to transportation and industry. Given this ubiquity, it’s not surprising that fire is a central symbol across religion, myth, literature and popular culture, variously representing passion and desire, purification and rebirth, destruction and punishment, or hope and eternity.
Close to Home speaks to these contradictory roles of fire in our lives. It is developed around my photographs of flames, sculpted into curving, gestural three-dimensional forms, that were made at family campfires and embody my memories of comfort, laughter and kinship. On the backs are gestural drawings made with homemade sumi ink ground from charred wood from the 2020 CZU complex fire. On a central structure, groups of these sculpted photographs are arranged, mosaic-like, into much larger formations to evoke the ascending flames and embers of forest wildfires.
In some areas and at different times of day, shadows are primarily visible, whispers of promise or threat…or perhaps nothing. Likewise, on most objects one side of the sculptural photograph is hidden.
In the contrasts of small and large, visible or implied, I’m asking the viewer to consider our multifaceted relationship with fire and the environment generally - how we use natural resources, where we live, and how we balance current desires with future disaster. Addressing such questions is essential for the future of both man and the natural world.
The exhibition is in the Art Kiosk at 2208 Broadway (on Courthouse Square) in Redwood City, CA from April 17-May 30, 2021. It is viewed through the windows on all sides of the building at any time of day. A variable light program runs after dark until 2 am.
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