Series Page: Fire copy

FIRE AND ASH

Fire Paintings utilize Braille Poetry and Ash, Braille is sculpted onto canvas and wood frames are burned until charcoal. The paintings are executed with the participation of people who are blind, leaving fingerprints as documentation of human contact. Nachum employs the system of raised Braille cells sculpting them in rectangular columns across the canvas. As collaborators run their fingers from the frame to Braille, evidence of human interaction remains on the canvas. Nachum encourages people to continue touch and interact with the work, breaking the barrier between viewer and “sacred object”. After repeated contact the work evolves and remains always alive. The interaction adds an element of performance; the artist starts a painting and leaves the viewer to complete it.

Using himself as a conduit Nachum blindfolded himself for 196 hours, a period of seven consecutive days. During this period he focused on painting and poetry. He experienced vivid an intense visual hallucinations and periods of complete and total darkness where he felt detached from the physical world. After the first day the hallucinations then became a constant presence. They began with flashes of light and color, and progressed into vivid landscapes, human forms and childhood memories. He describes the experience as spiritual and transformative. It provided him with a deeper understanding of his non-visual senses, and challenged him to offer a way into his work for people who otherwise may never “experience” a painting.