Jo Hummel

FORGET

2020

Pyre VII 2017 India ink and acrylic paint on charred birch plywood 32" x 24" x 1.25" Pyre VII is part of a series of charred panels Watson completed in 2017 at the Arts, Letters and Numbers Residency in Averill Park, NY. The pieces incorporate local materials, rice, and fire to create charred photographic images on plywood that explore themes related to being, substance and imperceptibility. The imagery references the practice of cremation on a funerary pyre in which the corpse is prepared and burned over a construction of combustible materials. Within the work, rather than destroying the body, the fire produces an afterimage that remains indefinitely. Each day Watson would scavenge the site collecting natural objects, such as sticks, small rocks, and other detritus. He laid these objects on the surface of the plywood with raw rice. The surface was then charred using a propane torch. After the objects and rice were removed an image of them remained, like a photogram. In some panels, He incorporated a homemade black rice ink or various paints to tint the surface before and after burning. Rice is a recurring theme in Watson’s work. It alludes to an uncontained body in the process of decay, returning to the earth to become a source of sustenance for new life. It also imagines the soul extending beyond its fleshly container. The act of burning attempts to capture the space between life, death, and rebirth— freezing it in a state of transformation. The sticks, stones, and rice become remnants of life and markers of space and time. They are more than mere grains and detritus. They become the body as a trace of what was and a reflection of what will be. Michael Watson...

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