Artist's Statement

Yasunori Matsui

In 2012, I began a project in association with Alaska National Park Service Fire Management traversing across remote wilderness of Alaska to capture ground and aerial perspectives of landscapes impacted by wildland fire. Ignited by lightning and extinguished with rain, these conflagrations are one of the pure natural processes of Mother Nature. This inaugural series was inspired by the primordial power of fire as it follows a non-linear trajectory to transform landscapes overnight. The end of a life cycle, often observed with negative perceptions, can also be considered that cycle’s apotheosis as consumed landscape is transfigured into a renewed origin, the birth of a new life cycle. Since the beginning of time, our planet has served as a host for a variety of organisms. Humanity, only a blip on a cosmic timeline, is an innumerable conglomeration of beings bestowed with conditional residency here on Earth. There are forces of immeasurable energy operating within this macrocosm that demand every organism to evolve or face extinction. Common sense among scientific communities suggests that there has been a grand departure from previous ecological cycles to which our species have been accustomed to. Climate change threatens the world’s habitats and impacts the frequency and intensity of natural disasters. We have entered an unheralded cycle that will challenge our relationship with the natural world and define the future ecosystem within which human civilization must survive. The mission of the project, Earth Frame, is to document ever-changing face of our planet as archive for future generations who carry immense tasks to conserve the host to this humanity and cohabiting species. I am entering the next phase of the project which involves returning to the same settings to capture the progression of upcoming ecological cycles. Future images will also be accompanied by scientific studies from fields such as ecology, geology, and history.