Fire is a symbol of transformation and enlightenment. Its mythic gifting provided the spark of human development, representing knowledge—and hubris.
There have always been two sides to fire, the creator and the destroyer. In our modern world, our language reflects the means of controlling fire’s destructive power: fire trucks, fire drills, fire escapes, and fire extinguishers. Despite the risk of fire’s rampage however, it is equally as beneficial as it is dangerous. Fire provides heat for cooking, manufacturing, comfort, and incandescence for light. Certain creative/technological pursuits such as metallurgy, pyrography, ceramics, and glass working are enabled by fire.
Fire burns parallel to humans and has come to symbolize parts of our culture outside of utility. Anger, the feeling that triggers our adrenaline and brings heat to our faces, finds metaphor in fire’s uncontrollable spread. Anxiety, stress, or embarrassment plunge us into the sensation of boiling air. The formal qualities of colors can emulate and even inspire ‘hot’ feelings, with warm reds and oranges representing and even feeding irritability, hunger, and arousal. Heat has emotional reality, as well as physical.
PROMETHEUS is a call for artworks made with or about fire, heat, warmth, and works that burn physically or metaphorically.
For more information, visit Manifest Gallery
