A non-human community project.

Project Statement

Burned trees in forests devastated by extreme wildfires—events intensified by a warming planet—serve as the conceptual and material foundation for The Standing Dead. This series of portraits serves as both a lament and a gesture of atonement to these once-living plants. Through this work, I seek to capture their presence in death and honor their existence, while examining the broader ecological and existential narratives they embody.

Each summer in my home state of Montana, the threat of wildland fires looms large. I have been packed and ready to evacuate my home many times. In the spring of 2021, while hiking in a burned forest, I was struck by the juxtaposition of devastation and renewal—a landscape rendered fragile and strangely beautiful. These charred remains became a site for reflection on the decimating effects of climate change and the cyclical interplay between destruction and regeneration.

This project is rooted in a labor-intensive, process-driven methodology that merges materiality with ritual. I begin by placing wet sheets of sustainable kozo and gampi paper over the burned tree. I rub charcoal from the burned tree into my hands and then rub the paper down the length of the tree creating an intimate dialogue between myself, the medium, and the subject. The fibers of the paper fuse with the tree’s surface and I think about ancient forms of mark-making. Charcoal—one of humanity’s earliest artistic materials—becomes both medium and metaphor, speaking to themes of impermanence, memory, and transformation.

The tree rubbings are photographed, converted into negative form and printed in black and white on bamboo paper at a larger than life size scale. To deepen the connection between subject and image, I grind more charcoal from the burned trees into a fine pigment using a mortar and pestle. This pigment is then rhythmically worked into the surface of the prints —a durational act that imbues each piece with tactile intimacy.

These portraits explore the space between mourning and renewal while highlighting the connections between human activity, climate change and the lives of non-human beings. The resulting works are documents and meditations—visual elegies that grapple with loss while pointing toward resilience, inspiring awareness of shared vulnerability.