Comet Fire
Burned Eucalyptus wood, Gold leaf. 2022
Since moving to California, I’ve been fascinated with the interaction between the climate and the geography. As I hike through the trails of San Diego County, I often come across burned-out trees or entire areas of char. This experience led me to research the history of wildfires that burned the county and discover that fires of a certain size were given names. Motivated by these encounters and my research, I began collecting remnants from the fires as I hiked through these areas. “Comet Fire” is part of a series called Fire Works. For this piece, the wood is cut from several Eucalyptus trees destroyed by a fire in San Marcos, California; some of the pieces are gilded with gold leaf. My intent was to create a topography of the burn using the charred wood’s surface, inscribing gold veins throughout. The work contains hundreds of individual pieces and changes wherever it’s installed.
Tim Murdoch 