Ten Fires

2022
Site Specific installation, Academy of Natural Sciences
2-channel installation, HD video, Acrylic, Sound,

Installed among the Academy of Natural Science’s taxidermy dioramas of the 1930’s - 1950’s.

With over 100 locals participating, Ten Fires combines fragments of folklore and stories told around campfires in the New Jersey Pine Barrens over four years. Filmed initially during the making of The Pine Barrens and merged with an improvisational session of musicians of The Ruins of Friendship Orchestra also filmed playing over a Pine Barrens fire, this installation further abstracts the footage into a tonal and impressionistic study of the transfigurative nature of storytelling and fire.
Fire in the New Jersey Pinelands is an essential component in the natural ecology, destroying non-native plants and promoting new growth. Similarly, fire helps to sustain the character and lore of The Pine Barrens as an epicenter for storytelling.