And Yet I am Still

And yet I am still. A land touched by fire, resting. The hand of mankind, slowly creeping across her surface. The geological infancy of volcanic islands has compelled me for more than a decade. Traveling across them, I can imagine their birth, slowly rising from the ocean floor and then above the water. I meditate on their maturation, slowly becoming inhabitable by plants and animals, which are still living under the risk of fresh eruption. The land shares relations with both water and air, moody and unforgiving creatures themselves. Over time we have tried to conquer the wildness of these places, marking the fresh rock with asphalt, fence posts, and power lines. I seek out quiet moments of symmetry in these surreal landscapes, either natural or constructed, which suggest magic and mystery in tandem with the threat of transformation by fire.