Ceramics (partly glazed), iron oxide, latex, silicone, emergency blanket, copper wire, epoxy resin, infrared light, concrete, sound (15:06 min, loop)
dimensions variable
2023
The installation REDDENED BY FIRE refers to the spatial situation of a campfire and invites visitors to take a seat around the replicate of branches, surrounded by therapeutic infrared light and sound. Considering fire as ambiguous, and a fireplace as space which enables gestures of intimacy and eerie storytelling, the work ponders about the embodied and metaphoric experience of heat.
The title refers to the cutaneous condition “erythema ab igne" (lat.), caused by a long-term or chronically repeated exposure to heat in contexts of labour, pain therapy or mental disorders. For the installation, branches overgrown with lichen were cast in ceramic and fired using oxides. Through the material transformation, their constellation no longer merely resembles small, isolated remnants of hearths, but also evokes a sense of physical matter and corporeality, which is reinforced by further materials such as latex, silicone and infrared radiation. The reflective imprints of emergency blankets cast in epoxy resin invite visitors to linger in the installation and listen to the 15-minute sound work.
Here, a voice 'waxes and wanes' on a soundscape of frequencies ranging from barely audible to almost physically distressing peaks, bringing together research on a culturally and historically informed understanding of fire with real experienced sensations and healing processes. Dryness is harmonised with fluidity through the reversal of intersectional interpretations of heat and the revelation of vulnerability to encourage a queer-feminist potential for transformation.
The exhibition space is transformed into an infrared cabin that not only enables a different spatial experience, but also speaks of a longing for reformulated and embodied methods of un/learning.
Installation Views
2023
Installation Views
Turn Illness into a Weapon -
Artistic Perspectives Within Healthcare Movements
Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin
2024
Photos (c) Erik Tschernow
Turn Illness into a Weapon -
Artistic Perspectives Within Healthcare Movements
Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin
2024
Photos (c) Erik Tschernow