The hills are full of clay—layers of deep purple,
red, green, and black earth that move with the
sun, geologic paintings so beautiful that you feel
them in your chest when you walk
through the belly of their canyons.
—Avi Farber, “Making Kin with Wild Fire"
Markings from Fire is an exhibition of wood-fired ceramics, charcoal drawings, 3-D printed flasks, and video by multimedia artist and former United States Forest Service firefighter Avi Farber. In this exhibition, Farber brings his experience of working in the burn scar of the most devastating fire in New Mexico’s history, the 2022 Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire, and its aftermath, to form & concept to better understand humanity’s role within the natural world. Through ceramic works made from prehistoric minerals, ruins, locally sourced clays, and wood preserved using a burning technique similar to the Japanese practice of shou sugi ban, Farber creates a portrait of fire’s direct and obtuse impacts on public land, private residences, and natural and man-made landscapes. Together, these works invite viewers to reflect on themes of impermanence and existential meaning on various scales of time, from a single human’s experience of a tragic event to Earth’s genesis and its eons of environmental transformation that impact us all and call for deep collective reflection.