Small Fires
Sint–Lukasgalerie, Brussels, Belgium
Ed Ruscha, from the book Various Small Fires and Milk (1964)
Fire holds a primitive fascination over us. It is as much associated with passion and love – which also might have devastating effects – as it is with revolutions and political turmoil. Besides these symbolic or metaphoric readings, it also offers pure visual allure. Conceived by curator Filip Luyckx, the group show ‘Small Fires’ brings together a number of art works that explicitly reference fire, along with others that function more autonomously.
Bruce Nauman, Burning Small Fires (1969)
The starting point for the project was Ed Ruscha’s Various Small Fires and Milk (1964), an artist’s book in which Ruscha photographed various forms of fire, such as a burning cigarette or a fireplace, in a dead-pan, documentary way. In 1969, Bruce Nauman burned the book, photographed it and edited an artist’s book of his own, called Burning Small Fires (1969). That, in turn, inspired Jonathan Monk to burn Nauman’s book and make a 16mm film of it, a poster for which is presented in the show (small fires burning [after Ed Ruscha after Bruce Nauman after], 2003).
Thomas Galler, Various Fires and Four Running Boys (2009)
Thomas Galler also formulated a response to Ruscha’s work by producing his own book, entitled Various Fires and Four Running Boys (2009), in which he presents not only the sources of fire but also its consequences and casualties. The inclusion of these two last works reveals the limitations of the show’s curatorial stance: such a chain of associations and references only works if each new contribution has something substantial to add to the original. If not, it becomes a predictable form of self-reflexive Spielerei, narrowing down the concept instead of opening it up from various thematic angles.
Reynold Reynolds, Burn (2002)
Luckily, the exhibition is not restricted to this navel-gazing, intertextual practice. Erich Weiss presents the diptych Even Small Fires Can Prove Dangerous (2011), which, through text and image, tells the story of a man falling deeply in love with an ‘angel faced redhead’ – a love that turns out to be fatal. Fire’s associations with political turmoil are addressed in Galler’s Ecstatic Fire (2007), a film in which a compilation of news images from political unrest and violence succeed one another at great speed. Superflex’s film Burning Car (2008) also symbolically refers to political protest by showing a car set aflame. Strangely enough, it evokes the same calmness you’d feel if you were staring into a fireplace. A comparable sense of the uncanny beauty of destruction emanates from Reynold Reynolds’ brilliant video Burn (2002), in which a house burns down while its occupants calmly continue their daily activities.
Superflex, Burning Car (2008)
‘Small Fires’ is an exhibition that is as mesmerizing as staring at a fire. However, by omitting some works – Rosemary Laings’ picture of yet another burning car, for example – it could have avoided the unnecessary repetition from which it sometimes suffers. Nevertheless, these are only minor flaws in what is otherwise a captivating show.
Sam Steverlynck
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