The Elements: FIRE (Click here to view the gallery)

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FIRE Brochure Essay

The second in our series of exhibits about The Elements focuses on Fire. The pre-Socratic philosopher, Empedocles (c. 492-432 B.C.), noted the world's division into four naturally occurring Elements –“earth, sea, air and the fiery aether of

Born of Fire, Lee Tribe

the heavenly bodies” – were the basis of all matter.¹ For centuries, these elements continued to be the foundation for our decoding of the world.

From the dawn of time, fire has provided an awesome force in the universe, both mysterious and complex. Human awareness of daily light resulted from the fire of the sun, appearing first as the comforting heavenly lights of sun, moon and stars. It had the capacity to nurture through its ability to provide warmth and comfort against the cold. It could illuminate the darkness and ward off danger. However, fire also manifested its fearsome capabilities through lightning, wildfires and volcanoes, a destructive force that defied the imagination. The discovery, capture and control of fire were, arguably, the most significant developments in the survival of the species and charted the route to civilization.

Fire myths and rituals exist in virtually every society and religion throughout the world. The Firebird, or Phoenix, the bird that dies and is reborn of the same flame, is prominent in many lands. Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Native American cultures have counterparts of the Phoenix as part of their mythological histories; the bird is identified with both fire and the sun.

Gods connected to fire exist in many cultures: the Norse Thor, god of lightning and thunder; the Hawaiian Pele, goddess of fire and volcanoes who devours the land and is both creator and destroyer; the Egyptian Bennu, soul of the Sun God Ra; and Jinni, the Middle Eastern spirit of fire are but a few. The prevalence of myths and folklore centering on the acquisition of fire gives us a sense of its importance.

The ancient Greek legend of Prometheus tells us that he stole fire from the gods and gave it to man through

Agni, Craig McPherson

Hephaestus, the god of fire and metalworking – who later  correlates to Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and war. The fact that these legends and stories still have the power to move us speaks to our continuing relationship to fire.

Rituals also developed around the focus of fire because fire equated with both strength and sustenance. As renowned anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss documents in The Raw and the Cooked: An Introduction to the Science of Mythology, numerous South American tribal myths focus on the subject of stealing fire to cook food, thus enabling a civilization to thrive and prosper. For primitive tribes, capturing fire must have seemed magical, like capturing a piece of the sun. In primitive cultures, the sacred fire keeper held an esteemed position, responsible for ensuring the sustenance of the fire that protected the society from the intrusion of animals and outsiders.

In many religions fire is viewed as a purifier, a renewer, a way to ward off evil. For Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Zoroastrians and more, fire plays a part in celebration and remembrance. From candles on an altar to votive candles in memorials to eternal flames to funeral pyres, fire is one way that humans remember other times, places and people.

From the point of view of human development towards a civilized society, having fire meant that man could exist in colder climates, allowing for unprecedented mobility. It provided for the creation of glass and metal implements for cooking, defense and adornment. Fire provided illumination, the ability to herd animals for hunting and the ability to clear land for farming. It also created a warm hearth to return to and a place for the gathering of the immediate and extended family to create a greater sense of community.

Historically, fire has also dealt blows to civilization – such occurrences as the volcanic ash that buried Pompeii and the Great Fires of London and Chicago have taken on the qualities of myth. The wildfires that annually scorch millions of acres of land worldwide make fire a continuing, frightening reality.

Fire has not lost its potency for humans. Fire is both a noun and a verb. Common to our language are such notions as

Intricacies, Ula Einstein

the “fires of passion”, the “cauldron of creation” and the “heat of inspiration”.  Artists get “fired up” to pursue an idea and are caught up in the “heat of the moment”.  When successful, we think of them as “on fire”.

For artists, fire can be both a subject matter and a tool that supplies the implements and raw materials used to create their art, or a means by which the art itself is created. It provides the charcoal that creates a line, the process that melts or arranges the metal, and/or a means to transpose vision to creation.

Fire is the common starting point for each of the works in this exhibit. Each artist has a unique and particular connection to the subject of fire and each produces a very personal result.

Fire is comfort. In Craig McPherson's oil painting Agni (1988-2006) the Hindu god of fire illustrates the burning barrels of fire of the homeless, but here the raw material to be burned are picture frames. Known for his environmental concern, Adam Straus presents the diptych Memorial (1995) that depicts one unlit and one lit candle with a bloom suspended in a dark sensuous background.

Fire is a religious and mythological symbol. Alan Falk's painting Ezekiel: The First Vison (2006) takes a moment from the Bible to illustrate the power of fire. Siona Benjamin paints works about displacement. Raised in India as a Jewish woman, and now living in New York, Benjamin's complex painting Finding Home #68 (Lilith) (2004) features Persian miniature-like surfaces, while a female in a yoga position wearing concentration camp garb sits in a fire and tends to watering plants whose bulbs contain embryonic children. Esme Disch, Idaherma Williams and Lynn Yeslow-Finn, refer to common knowledge of the ancient world. Disch's freely depicted Firebird (2006) dramatically swoops up from the ground. The Slaying of Cerberus, Guardian of Hades (2005), one of twelve in a portfolio of the Labors of Hercules by Williams, and Yeslow-Finn's monotype Persephone (2004), refer to the ancient myths and the fires of hell.

Plume I, II, III, Francine Funke

Fire is metaphor. Willie Cole's tongue-in-cheek lithograph Burning Bush (2002) makes a political statement, while Sharon Coffin's amusing mixed media painting flash•point (2006) makes reference to the heat of two people meeting and connecting to each other. Barbara Wilk's oil crayon Their World is on Fire (2000) features terrified stick figures and circular images that resemble primitive drawings on cave walls.

Fire is heat. Volcanoes are the subject matter for Alice Merlone's Eruption: Molten River (2006), a monoprint of flowing lava, and Kevin Thomas' Black Mountain 4, Siren #7 (2001), a highly glazed, ceramic version of an underwater volcano. Josh Dorman's Near the Villa of the Mysteries (2004), a painting with layers of dream-like imagery, depicts an exploding mouth-shaped volcano, seen over a ground of antique maps, while Irene K. Miller's Ashes (2006), a monotype collage, indicates the aftermath of a fire.

For other artists, fire is light. Suzy Sureck makes Plexiglas sculptures and photographs their cast shadows to create luminous powerful images in Chiaroscuro 1261 (2006). Judith Steinberg's Underexposed (1983), a small box sculpture, refers to X-rays and their power over our bodies. With a red glow from within and hair coming out of the top of the box we are reminded of our fragility. With feminist overtones, Cavern (2006), by Susan McCaslin, indicates the glow of a fire within a slightly menacing cave that hovers over two figures that seem unaware. Carol deBerry's Fireflies (2006), a monotype with crayon, depicts the fascinating light that is emitted on warm summer evenings.

For artists David Sena, Ula Einstein, Bryan Nash Gill, Francine Funke, Christine Goldbach and Lee Tribe, fire is power; it can create and destroy. David Sena controls fireworks to create his drawings on paper. The process of creating Untitled (2005) is viewed on a DVD next to the drawing in the gallery. Ula Einstein creates ephemeral sculptural works of paper and wire that are singed, allowing the sienna-tinged edges of the paper to act as subtle color on the forms that spiral out from the wall casting delicate shadows in Intricacies (2006). Directly influenced by the northern Connecticut woods where he lives, Gill exhibits Woodprint with Woodcut Block (2003), a sculpture of a huge Hemlock log that has been burned, inked and hand printed in three long scrolls.

For Francine Funke, the oil fires of Kuwait were the inspiration for Plume I, II and III (1993). Three of the series of five large-scale acrylic canvases, collaged with painted paper, depict the beginning, middle and end of the raging fires that devastated the countryside. Christine Goldbach also uses fire to burn images into wood panels, in this case Burn X, Bottles I (2005), depicting glass bottles, a material that cannot be created without fire and sand. Lee Tribe, a sculptor in the abstract tradition, is represented by Born of Fire (2006), a dense, graceful, yet twisting figure with a black patina that seems to grow upward as we watch.

Otto Weininger, the Austrian philosopher said, “Among the notable things about fire is that it also requires oxygen to burn – exactly like its enemy, life. Thereby are life and flames so often compared.” Each of these artists is intimately connected to fire and by association to life.

Sophia Gevas
Director

1 Campbell, Gordon, Department of Ancient Classics, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.