We are pleased to announce Pratchaya Phinthong‘s participation in The Structure of Smoke, currently on view until April 12 at @belkinartgallery in Vancouver.
A proposal to set CH4∙5.75H₂O on fire (work in process) is an ongoing project exploring methane hydrate, an ice compound identified as a potential future energy source. Existing beneath Arctic permafrost, Antarctic ice, and sedimentary deposits, methane hydrate releases natural gas when temperature increases or pressure decreases. The 16mm film presents ignited samples, producing semi-transparent orange and blue flames. By mobilising collaborations across geology, science, and art, the project raises awareness of methane hydrate’s chemically volatile nature and its implications for energy industries. The film performs a material transfer, capturing the light of combustion and projecting it into the gallery space.
The exhibition brings together works that problematize the poetic, structural, and political aspects of fire through contemporary artists’ engagement with its metaphorical and literal processes and the spaces it creates and displaces. Holding a smoked mirror to contemporary society, the exhibition speculatively considers ecologies, interconnectedness, and relationality, proposing new ways of living with fire that embrace Indigenous and ecological knowledges beyond spectacle and devastation.
