2023
4K video
320” x 526”
Metamorph, a 4K video projected onto a building in Richmond, VA, explores fire as both a creative and destructive force. A campfire or bonfire is a primal call to gather. The warmth, intensity and mesmerizing play of light foster storytelling, celebration and create a sense of comfort and community.
But projecting fire onto a building has another connotation— that of a home or business burning and the resulting loss of stability and security. It also touches on Richmond’s recent past in the summer of 2020 when protestors took to the streets following George Floyd’s murder. Fires burned in the city as the community came together to express its pain, anger and grief, demand accountability and justice, and upend the legacy of the Confederacy.
Controlled fires are used by forest managers to destroy but ultimately make the forest more resilient. A prescribed burn destroys harmful elements, returns nutrients to the soil and opens up space to allow in more sunlight, nurturing young plants as they start to grow.
Similarly, the creation of a better community requires the destruction of harmful behaviors and institutions. Metamorph encapsulates that moment of potential when past and present collide to blaze a new future.
Photograph by David Hale