About the work
10' x 10', Steel, Video, Sound, 2014 Fire & Water is a wall installation that pays homage to Malian potters and blacksmiths and shows the intersection of culture and ecology. Potters and blacksmiths work with fire. In the Bamana cosmology, in addition to north, south, east, west, there is a 5th cardinal point that is the point of water. Among the steel elements, there are round elements that can symbolize a drop of rain or a body of water. The four short videos, shot in Kalabougou, show aspects of the process of pottery making and blacksmithing. In 2019, I had the pleasure of exhibiting this installation in Segou, a city across the river from Kalabougou. I hoped to show the installation to the potters who were my inspiration. I’d show it a few times in the US but I never thought I would show it in Mali and across the river from Kalabougou where I lived for several months during my Fulbright research in 1995.
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