BIRD OF HEAT
“Knowing that heat is essential for change, for instance, what Beuys called “Warmecharakter” can lead to a series of reflections starting from the indetermination of chaos: Fond VII/2 (1967-1984) is one example among a thousand which, with its piles of superimposed felt like the strata of time… whereby the conditions for the awareness of essence are in the making, are the making."
In October, I saw a dead swan in the River Avon. I thought to make a sculpture that included a bit of Warmecharaketer. I made a steel frame to which I added several hundred matches, which I then set on fire. The piece is called, "Bird of Heat" from Roberto Bolaño's infra realist poetry collection, "Pájaro de calor".
Also you might want to consider Gaston Bachelard's The Psychoanalysis of Fire: "If all that changes slowly may be explained by life, all that changes quickly is explained by fire. Fire is the ultra-living element. it is intimate and it is universal. It lives in our hearts. It lives in the sky. It rises from the depths of the substance and offers itself with the warmth of love. Among all the phenomena, it is really the only one to which there can be so definitely attributed the opposing values of good and evil. It shines in paradise. It burns in hell. It is gentleness and torture. It is cookery and it is apocalypse.
