AFTER THE SMOKE CLEARS
After the Smoke Clears
AFTER THE SMOKE CLEARS is an exhibition showing the deep personal impact and devastation that uncontrolled mega fires have on our homes, our communities, and humankind.
In September of 2020, about 3000 homes, scores of automobiles and countless businesses and commercial structures in Southern Oregon were destroyed. Other wildfires in 2020 including the Australia bush fires, the Amazon rain forest and elsewhere caused unprecedented devastation, scorching perhaps as much as 100 million acres worldwide.
The found objects featured in this exhibition were recovered with permission from property owners who were impacted by the 2020 Almeda Fire.
This exhibit invites us to contemplate the devastating consequences of fire and reflect on what this means for humanity on a very intimate level.
Many of the objects recovered from the fires shown in this exhibition have been recovered, cleaned, and sealed with paint and urethane.
The resultant glass-like surface on the melted objects suggests wetness and water and is juxtaposed against the searing forces that created them. Water was of little help in protecting the many properties destroyed in the fast-moving fires.
This dichotomy speaks to the decline of fresh water supplies worldwide due to drought and desertification
Video footage taken of Bear Lake Estates in Phoenix, OR by the artist - September 9,2020. All rights reserved.
Heart - A Personal Story
The following was written by a victim of the fire about a treasured object feared lost and later found by sifting through the ashes with a screen.
It is a heartfelt narrative that speaks to a place of hope and gratitude needed by many survivors as they move through the difficult process of rebuilding their lives after suffering devastating loss from fire.
Reprinted with permission of the writer, who wishes to remain anonymous.
That moment when you have enough strength. To hope for the impossible. Looking at your layers upon layers of nothing but ashes. A lifetime of everything...all ashes.
And then amongst the rubble, smells and everything lost, a heart shaped tin.
Could it be?! The one piece of jewelry that had such sentimental value. A big inhale, hold of the breath and then open the box.
There it was! 💍
The only thing I have from my Grandma Robson. Except for her precious memories.
My mom gave this ring to her mother from the very first paycheck of when she graduated from university and became a nurse. My mom and grandma gave this to me many, many years later in its original dark blue velvet heart shaped box. I had it resized and have kept it safe all these years until the Almeda Wildfire. One of my most sentimental memories of this sweet ring was gifting it as something “blue” in my Sister/Girlfriend Mary Soborski’s wedding in upstate New York. She wore it in her hair.
Simply soaking this up amongst the process of grieving and recovery. It’s the little things. Today was a special day.