“Smoke signals have been used by different cultures in the past as a primary means of communication which could warn of imminent danger. Smoke signals were the quickest way to send messages, from the white smoke of the Vatican to the black smoke in native villages that announced something terrible. Smoke coming from the middle of the hill meant that everything was fine, but if it came from the top, it meant that there was danger. At present, we seem to be living in a constant smog between the incendiary glare of climate change and corporate greenwashing propaganda.
Forest fires, burnout syndrome, c02 emissions, mental short circuits, the urban thermometer, greenwashing… Today, we no longer understand our own smoke signals. We look at the emissions from factory chimneys and can’t measure their meaning. Like a waving flag, these signals are part of the traces left by capitalism; side effects of progress.
The sacred fire of yesteryear is devouring us in the present—Is it the same for the great forest fires? This is the afterglow of global warming.
We seem overheated in the supermarket queue after a day’s work. We listen to the sound of scanned products as if it were a vital sign monitor. We look burned out and we are not surprised to be smelling smoke: we do this to ourselves over again.
Smoke signals refer to everything that doesn’t work correctly in modern society, a short circuit in the production tsunami assembly line, a metaphor for the side effects of capitalism.
Fumata negra”
Artist
Isaac Cordal
Dates
From June 8 to July 15, 2023
More info at Galerie C.O.A
