FIRE SIGN is an exhibition of photography and sculpture, with work by artists whose novel manipulations of light, heat, and ritual reminds us of our shared attraction to the cinematic glow and warmth of fire - our species' most fundamental and both / life-giving and life-taking / tool.
MARIE ANINE MØLLER (New York and Copenhagen) is an interdisciplinary sculptor. Her works on view are wax-cast fish heads on glass bases, and manipulated knives with artist-made glass blades. These pieces present a specific, and uncomfortably tempting juxtaposition of a cold fish and an icy knife blade, contrasted with the molten glass and wax which they were made from. Artists have been using melted, lava-like materials as raw resources for millennia. But Møller's contemporary reflection of 21st century life as a cold dead fish in a hot sharp kitchen fire, is a heated joke - ripe for contemplation.
KENNY WU (New York, NY) makes photographs which almost betray their subjects, with just how intimately he exposes the psychological states in which they find themselves. Wu's work depicts the swarm theory by which humans will gather around light and spectacle. His use of fireworks as photographic optical effects is stunning -- with firework imagery being utilized quite differently by Herity as well. The poetic panopticon of raucous revelers surrounding the bullfighter in Wu's work, displays the complexity of both victim and beast at the center of a chaotic and borderline hell-ish ritual.
CHRIS HERITY (New York, NY) is a photographer who captures real-life imagery which almost appears to be stills from old movies about Chinatown, complete with lo-fi special effects of light and smoke. However the artist's dedication to capturing the phenomena of these un-staged, actual moments in time reflects his awe of the lived density and heat of our home neighborhood.
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