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Burning
Memory
Catalogue essay by Natasha Bullock
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Wall
of Fire
Lily
Hibberd’s installation entitled Burning Memory
plays with the history and nature of cinematic experience.
Using spatial and temporal dynamics and drawing upon the
loaded symbolism of a burning house, Hibberd reconstructs
the psychological space(s) of cinema. The exhibition consists
of fourteen paintings and a video that reveal different
aspects of a house on fire. The video establishes the tone
of the viewing experience. Sliced together are generic burning
houses presented in black and white format, sourced from
documentary footage and film. A succession of flaming moments
that advance hissing and crackling from one frame to the
next. Emanating faintly from beneath the fire footage is
music that adds a melancholic and personal dimension to
the work - dulcet sounds which resonate through the installation.
The content of the video is loosely arranged around four
movements — the camera approaches the fire, enters
the interior of the house, leaves the house as it is collapsing
and then escapes the area in a fade to black. This structure
cleverly mirrors the processes of spectatorship involved
in Hibberd’s exhibition, for as viewers we too approach
the work (fire), enter the blackened environment of the
interior space and are drawn into the drama of the paintings.
The overall effect of the video is subtle and evocative,
working to trigger the spectator’s memories and experiences
of housefires. Its washed out tones exist in stark comparison
to the colourful theatricality of Hibberd’s paintings.
The interior exhibition area is a reconstruction of a cinema
space: dark and immersive. It is an environment that heightens
sensory and spatial stimuli. Bright, bold and seductive
the paintings enfold the viewer in a drama of colour and
content. Hibberd employs cinematic devices such as scale,
perspective and focus to control the response of the spectator.
The first painting Housefire (burning), for example,
is a small work that depicts a sharp distant view of a house
enveloped in flames. While the third painting Into the
Fire (running) is a large scale, close up and out of
focus depiction of a blurry inferno. These changes in size,
in cropping and in the movement from sharp to blurry affect
the reception of the image within the sequence of works,
promoting the spectators active engagement. With the movement
across and between each canvas there is a shift in time
and an awareness of spatial arrangement. However, time seems
to pass through and beyond these paintings as they begin
to visually coalesce. The logic of moving from left to right
around the exhibition space is rapidly displaced by the
demanding nature of the work and its powerful and intense
colour. The spectator is literally confronted by a wall
of fire.
Hibberd uses fire as a metaphor and device, referencing
its destructive power and emotive potential. The paintings
act as fragments, as a series of impressions that constitute
a set of relations. By operating on a similar level to film
sequences which are related and distinct visual moments,
Hibberd’s paintings encourage the viewer to look for
connections, differences and repetitions. She uses the painted
surface to enact some of these associations and entice the
viewer to closer inspection. In Fire Swept (northerly
wind), for example, the thickening of sweeping brushstrokes
emulates movement. While in Collapse of Dreams (skeleton)
the haptic quality of the surface is smooth and alluring.
The changes in technique are expressive, referencing the
subject matter of each painting and shaping a relationship
between their constituent parts. The titles work in the
same way. Each title is suggestive of a singular moment
yet the images are clearly part of the one fire.
Hibberd’s Burning Memory eloquently showcases
the ability of the painting medium to engage as cinema does
in the evocation of a psychological space. Referencing some
of the devices of cinema —still, close-up, distance
shot, cropped, blurry and sharp — she creates a dynamic
environment where interacting physical, perceptual and psychological
spaces are built, re-built and collapse.
Natasha
Bullock © 2001
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