Fire burns and fire destroys, but as the Western myth of Prometheus goes, fire is one of civilization’s most fundamental building blocks. This dynamic still holds true today. The burning of fossil fuels provides the majority of the energy needed to fuel our civilization, but in what seems to be a direct corollary, the more we burn, the more we get burned. Most scientists agree that the burning of fossil fuels at contemporary rates is the leading cause of climate change, which itself is the leading cause of the sizable increase in the number of wildfires occurring each year. Our triumphs dance with our destructions, and never have the two been sunk deeper inside each other.
While it’s one thing to see other people, on TV, who live far away, bear the brunt of these destructions, it’s quite another to experience it for oneself. And while this piece does not aim to replicate that experience, it does try to establish the mental and environmental conditions to provide a more direct glimpse into what it would feel like and look like to have the destructiveness of fire imposed upon you. This is important because as more fire related disasters occur, the more we require tools and experiences to empathize with those affected by them.
Fire Will Be Here is a site specific video installation of variable dimension. It runs for 2 minutes on loop and was presented for the first time at the LUMEN Festival on June 28th, 2014. It measures 17’ x 15’.
