Reflecting on fire last night during and after Holcombe Waller's performance with Lone Pine Studio that conjured up the fire caused by the Mosier train derailment, at the close of a summer of catastrophic fires, and while stacking wood for my own stove. There's no hiding fire, but even in its blatancy it contains a broad capacity for nuances between good and horrible. Is there a universal threshold up to which humans feel they are in control of fire? What are the parameters we use to determine our level of comfort? Obvious measurements can include size, site or surroundings, what is fueling the fire, and ritual or meaning, whether personal or cultural. Returning to Gaston Bachelard's Psychoanalysis of Fire may offer a guide to some of these questions.
Fire Ring, Swan Lake, MT 2017