Following the devastating 2020 wildfires in Oregon, Sarah Grew collected black coals from the fires that she then used through extensive research and experimentation, to create carbon prints of recorded images of the forests themselves. Her process and its resulting prints, with their frilled edges and torn emulsion echo the way natural fire cycles can surmount devastation to provide nutrients to the soil, force a pinecone to disperse its seeds, or shape the landscape, in contrast to the extreme intensity and size of the fires that are now common. The photographs show us the beauty being lost to human negligence and the climate crisis. Printed as lantern slides, the forest memory is held captive on sheets of glass accentuating both the fragility of life and our precarious position. Hung at various heights the viewer is invited to move through the Ghost Forest, witnessing a range of natural elements.

The exhibition at the LaVerne Krause Gallery will also include Jon Bellona’s sound installation Wildfire—a 48-foot-long speaker array that plays back a wave of fire sounds at speeds of actual wildfires. An instructor of audio production in the School of Music and Dance, Bellona hopes the installation will allow viewers to embody the devastating spread of wildfires through an auditory experience.

Open hours: Mon–Fri, 9 am–6 pm. Opening reception and panel discussion: “Native Ecologies” on Indigenous histories and approaches to fire management, knowledge production, and ecological stewardship Tuesday, April 25, 4–6 pm. Closing reception and CSWS 2023 Acker-Morgen Memorial Lecture by invited scholar Michelle Murphy, May 2, 4:30-6:30 pm.

Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Women in Society and the UO Environment Initiative.