Views of the Roihu Exhibition
Roihu (Eng. Blaze) abstracted painting exhibition by the artist Petra Kaminen Mosher at the Oulu Artist Association’s Gallery 5, Oulu, Finland, October 4th to 29th, 2023.
Fire is a fascinating subject. It is sculptural and menacingly captivating. Fire is both mesmerising in its dancing beauty as well as terrifying in its destructive power. The colours and movement of fire evoke a natural duality that is found in the human response to it, attraction and repulsion. The attraction to fire is both aesthetic and utilitarian: the ever-changing colours and flickering light are visible manifestations of its amorphous power which converts solid matter into energy and heat. The repulsion, ingrained into us from an early age for our own survival, is from the biting heat, the potential for damage, loss, death, and unconstrained destruction.
Fire is a basic element that has been adapted and innovated throughout history to suit the needs of humanity. As we have reached for higher achievement and sleeker refinement of our lifestyle, we have been ignoring and downplaying the cumulative effect our runaway consumer culture has on the environment. I use the visual metaphor of rampant wildfire as an illustration of what we are living through at this very moment, both on a literal level (there are uncontrolled fires raging in various countries) and as a metaphor for our own hubris in not tying technological progress and consumption with sustainability and conservation.
Fire as a visual metaphor is complex. As a basic element, it is aesthetically captivating and enchanting; historically it is associated with power, functionality and human progress. On a deeper level, fire affects the psyche, arousing feelings of delight and also fear or foreboding. I have incorporated plant forms into a visual dialogue with fire to heighten the sense of dread and menace. The Blaze exhibition is a mediation on the cognitive dissonance created by the pairing of aesthetic beauty with the intellectual and emotional responses provoked by images of wild fire as a symbol for the destruction of ecology and community.