Fire as Sustenance: Otobong Nkanga:
We Come from Fire and Return to Fire
Solo Show at Lisson Gallery
Nkanga’s solo show at Lisson Gallery, which I visited last year, constructs a poetic, otherworldly landscape where fire and destruction give way to repair and sustenance. Materials like stones, minerals, ropes, glass, clay, herbs evoke terrains that are both scorched and restorative. Charred ceramics and parched surfaces suggest ecological devastation, while pools of aromatic oils and talismanic objects gesture toward hope, repair and regeneration (Lisson Gallery, 2024).
I was particularly drawn to Confluence – Afterglow (2024), where flame-licked ceramic towers of stacked, crackelured cylinders punctuate the gallery space like scorched tree-trunks, accompanied by bowls of sustaining wood ash. Here, fire appears as both force and residue, a movement that leaves visceral traces and memories. The ashes of wood embody fire’s destructive yet regenerative nature, preserving in ending. Fire becomes fluid, cyclical, holding beginning and end simultaneously, transforming material even as it records its passage.
In my practice, I turn to pine wood as a site where fire’s residue is most resonant. The scent, the grain, and charred surfaces recall my childhood house held together by pine – heated, furnished, cooked within – a landscape burnt into memory and through being burnt, also being preserved. Fire for me, is a passage, a ceremonial movement of return. It purifies, and through purification it preserves, therefore is a force of continuity charged with hope and cathartic renewal. My charred pine surfaces remember the past while holding the potential of future preserved, embodying fire as sustenance, a visceral trace in the present moment.
Otobong Nkanga, Confluence - Afterglow, 2024. Ceramic, wood ash. 153 x 200 x 200 cm. Installation view at Lisson Gallery London.
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