A.Mead

An avid camper and backpacker, Mead has spent significant time around bonfires, campfires, and hearths. While living in Arizona, Mead experienced being caught in a smoke-filled valley while hiking when a forest fire sprang up. These experiences and a fascination with humans’ long history with fire have led to his long-term series of work related to the fundamental element. Several pieces are in relation to personal experiences, while others come from research, such as the idea, posed by anthropologist Richard Wrangham, that humans developed large brains because of using fire to cook food. Branching off an idea by Professor Stephen Pyne, that humans have evolved not only a dependence on fire for cooking, but also cooking materials such as concrete, glass, and steel. As we face the fact of a warming planet, we must also recognize that our actions of burning are actively cooking the planet as well. This many-thousand-year-old or many-million-year-old relationship has impacted our psychology and concepts of control, vulnerability, security, and intimacy. In short, fire is directly related to much of what it is to be human.