AGOG presents: Wildfires by Suzanne Cooper

If you live in the forest like I do, wildfires are impossible to ignore. So I won’t. They are evident in the fire pit you removed, in the brush you endlessly pile up, in the roof sprinkler system you built, and in the weather and wildfire apps that you check daily on your phones in summer. But our relationship with fire is complex. And I wanted to explore that side of wildfires using the most obvious of mediums: ceramic.

These salt and smoke fired container vessels and wall pieces are both altered/wheel thrown and hand built porcelain. They are burnished, polished and multi-fired using local forest materials (Fireweed husks, leaves, bear scat, fur, flowers, feathers, and foraged items found pre and post wildfire). And the frames, which are made by an incredible wood worker, Don Stenner, are local alder.

Conceptually, these pieces are meant to be “Protective Talismans” of sorts for those trying to find beauty, strength, and maybe a laugh in their pain/anxiety- both the obvious (physical wildfire threat) or the less so (internal “wildfire” threat). These pieces illustrate that struggle, both viscerally and metaphorically, that many of us feel right now in the face of a climate crisis and when recognizing our, potentially diminishing, mental health returns. The larger, freestanding vessels are meant to be interactive (with prompts and paper provided), inviting the viewer to add their own touch to the pieces that will be placed inside forever. They will remain with them wherever they go…a lovely, yet private, reminder of those who shared their vulnerability and joy. Because of the material choices, these pieces secretly contain multitudes. They can be pretty, or serious, or ridiculous, or sad, or weird, or loving, or terrible, or magical. Like each of us, they are all of those things.

In my own life, I spend a lot of time outside. Surrounded by, what is essentially, wildfire fuel and yet that time spent often saves me from myself. When I’m alone with it, it reminds me that I am part of something more than me. Because it is part of me, like it is of you. Nature can feed our souls AND it can pluck them from us. Like any good relationship, a healthy respect for it is key. And we aren’t doing that as a species at the moment. Our addiction to fossil fuels and our hyper individualistic, separate-from-nature, climate change denialist and heavily consumptive western behaviors have gotten us into this current climate and geopolitical fix. It is connection with the planet we live on, and the people in it that will get us out – at least that’s what I think.

This is the hope that I have, and hope is a hard won state of mind for me. But like the forced “property cross fit” I do to stay in shape (you wanna lift rocks? Have I got the spot for you!), it’s gotten stronger with practice. Not a soul in the world would describe me as Pollyanna and yet here I am once again exercising that hope muscle. Trying to take the ugliness of wildfires and fashioning them into something else, because there is strength to be found in hard times. Most of us already know that. We just need the reminder.

With love, Suz

Please note that as a white woman of Scottish descent. I am fully aware that this was never my land first. In my attempt at connecting to it, I’d like to pay homage to the fact that I am on the unceded territory of the Ktunaxa and Secwepemc peoples. This is their home, but it’s up to all of us to protect it – no matter where we come from originally.