Alexander/Heath Contemporary
is pleased to announce
an exhibition by photographer and painter
DONNA COOPER
“Fire Talks”
October 4 through October 25, 2024
OPENING RECEPTION:
Art-by-Night Friday, October 4th, 2024, 5-9 pm
Artist Talk at 7 pm
CLOSING RECEPTION:
Friday, October 25th, 2024, 6-9 pm
Fire Talks
My art process addresses memory, history, place and the body. Collaborating with the landscape through site specific interventions is an integral part of my practice. The essence of any space or place is installed within its past. Researching the history of the land along with the flora and fauna of the area are critical steps in my process of accessing its story. Like our bodies, the land contains memories and even trauma, but it can also heal. Architect Leslie Kanes Weisman stated that we need to, “reshape the territorial definition of our patriarchal world, along with the social identities and injustices that those boundaries have defined for all of us.” An awareness that I often meditate on and put into action through my photographed interventions and with my fire paintings.
Fire Talks, my most current work utilizes the element of fire while I learn from land and fire how to reindiginize myself and work towards being a good steward of the land I call River Place. The local Roanoke River continuously brings organic matter in all shapes and sizes towards my house. I often interpret this as an offering, as a collaboration, to shift & transform, to generate bon fires much like those in Nordic and Celtic traditions celebrating the midsummers eve or Native American traditions that utilize fires to balance and maintain the local ecosystem.
Fire Talks consists of photographs of my ritualistic performances where my body is often ghosted as I work with time and fire. The project also consists of paintings where I converse with fire through mark making. Burns, smoke, charcoal, and sometimes dirt make their way onto the paper as fire and I work to converse with each other. In collaborating I work to become egoless, so that the land has agency once again. I am rewriting the story handed to me at birth and facilitating a healing shift through the process of making the Fire Talks project.
Donna Cooper
September 2024
About the Artist
Donna Cooper is a visual and community engaged artist living in the Blue Ridge Mountains of VA. She holds a Master of Fine Art from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has continued her education by taking ecopsychology and ecoliteracy courses.
Photography, sculpture, and dance are utilized as she collaborates with the energies of place. By working with her body movements and the elements of nature Donna facilitates an opening for an exchange of energy and non- verbal dialogues to take place between herself and the larger world. The choreographed photographs document a sliver of time of a much larger process.
Most recently Donna is working deeply with Fire, and has extended her practice to incorporate painting and drawing. She uses the charcoal from the flames she initiates on the land she lives on to draw with, and lets the burning wood scorch and burn the paper on which she and Fire make marks. The photographs and drawings from this new series are collaborations with Fire and reflect a deeper ecology of mind.
Resources: donnacooperart.com
The exhibition is on display through October 25, 2024.
Access is available during special exhibition hours or by appointment only:
Contact Ed Hettig:
hettig@alexander-heath.com or text 607.226.2473.