Inferno (The Earth Wept As I Felt Her Crawl Into My Skin) (2021) is a body of work created in response to a five-week environmental arts placement, mapping ‘fire break’ trails in the mountain regions of Cyprus. It is an investigation into our relationship to fire across the various scapes of ecology, myth and matter.
What began as an inquiry into the island and its inhabitants situated at the forefront of climate crises bled into realms of spirituality at the threshold between body and terra, fable and truth.Firewatch towers bend over forested land weathered by lifetimes of rebirth and renewal as local villagers offer waxed votives to Saint Michael, Archangel of Fire. Sunburnt car bonnets lie still in barren villages at the fringes of ecological destruction as they sink into their surroundings. Fire break trails steeped in limestone murmur spells for protection as Orthodox churches bear witness to what is said to be the greatest forest fire in Cypriot history. For fire, so wild, so glowing and elemental ignites hidden wounds and unseen truths that may be reflected in the human psyche; or the inferno within.