Scorched

Scorched emerges from the ongoing clear felling of old growth native forests in Tasmania and across the world – ecosystems of immense age, complexity and irreplaceable value continue to be erased at speed. The work is a ghostly reminder of what persists, holding the weight of that devastation whilst insisting on presence.

Two timber columns rise at human scale. Torched, charred and blackened, they carry the physical language of fire and extraction – their height placing them in direct relationship to the body. 

Resting atop each column is a blown glass form shaped in moulds lined with eucalyptus bark. The bark’s surface presses into molten glass, transferring its intricacies with exacting fidelity. The imprint becomes an archival trace – a record of what once stood. In clear glass, the bark reappears: ghosted and luminous. 

The pairing of vertical structures carries the gravity of monument. It acknowledges collective loss and the quiet enormity of environmental destruction. 

Scorched speaks to a landscape marked by greed, violence and extraction, and stands within the tension between extinction and endurance.

Mould-blown glass, timber columns, 2025

Photography by Fred Kroh