“I’m using landscape as a way of having a larger conversation about place and power and deeply rooted notions of identity, belonging, and the question of who has access and agency. My work is this constant exercise in recalibrating and figuring out who we are in relation to one another. I’m using the word ‘landscape’ as a vehicle to uncover the less visible histories of people and places.”

Fire (America) 4 depicts a nocturnal landscape engulfed in flames. Teresita Fernández uses images of fire to reference swidden agriculture. Also called shifting cultivation, it is a sophisticated technique used by Indigenous peoples throughout the Americas to cultivate the land with the use of fire. Contrary to the idea that the Americas were a wilderness at the time of European contact, this farming method demonstrates the complex ways Indigenous peoples have engaged with the land for thousands of years. 

The twelve-foot-long work is composed of thousands of small glazed ceramic tiles. The high gloss of the glaze makes the work reflective, and viewers can see themselves mirrored in the landscape—perhaps asking us to think about how we relate to, and shape meaning around, the land. 

Teresita Fernández (born 1968), Fire (America) 4. Glazed ceramic, 2017. 72 × 144 × 1.25 in. (182.9 × 365.8 × 3.2 cm). Mr. and Mrs. Robert J. Barber Art Fund, 2024.161a–c. On view in Gallery 2A (Wolfe Gallery).

Image Description: This is a horizontal rectangular image composed of glazed ceramic tiles. It is almost entirely black, with a horizon line across the length of the image about three-fourths of the distance from the top of the panel.  This horizon is only visible because of the red glow of a fire burning along it. The glow is faint on the right half of the composition, while on the left, a section of yellow and red flames leap up from the horizon, providing a focal point in the overall darkness.