The Lewis Glacier, Mt. Kenya, 1963 (A) Possibly 2014 - 2015

Simon Norfolk made this photograph, The Lewis Glacier, Mt. Kenya, 1963 (A), in 1963. It’s a landscape, but also a performance. A kind of mark-making with fire. I’m drawn to the way the fiery lines snake through the stony ground. It feels so elemental, so precarious! The photograph’s surface is smooth and cool, but the image is all about heat and texture. The fire looks almost solid against the grainy ground, and the cool, pale glacier behind. The huts look so small and temporary against the solid mountain. But everything is temporary. The line of fire feels like a metaphor for loss, a scar across the landscape. Norfolk is known for his work documenting conflict and environmental change. Think of Robert Smithson and his spiral jetty, but with less earth and more fire. It reminds me that art is about asking questions, not giving easy answers. It's a conversation across time.