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Forest fires have come to signify a climate in crisis. Yet historically, forest and fire have long, entangled and even productive relationships. In the mid-20th century, technologies like clear-cutting replaced (and erased) Native American fire regimes in the US. Attempts to master nature were further enshrined by national narratives - like those of the vigilant and virile Smokey Bear. As Ursula K. Le Guin notes, the teleology of patriarchal heroism is a killer story - and leaves an absence in which life stories must be told.

Life in Ruins speculates on a life story of forest and fire, and more broadly, human and nature interrelations. I layer water and paint in colors and patterns that resemble fire-swept forests, where dead brush and new growth thrive in contingency. As death melts into life (and vice versa), bright vulnerable shapes balance and dance. In the space(s) between loss and growth, what kinds of life and ways of living unfold? What ways of unknowing and knowing emerge?

Melissa Wang

www.melissawangart.com