Description: To Burn, Forest, Fire
To Burn, Forest, Fire is an artwork by Katie Paterson that uses scent to explore the first-ever forest on Earth, and the last forest in the age of the climate crisis. The artwork employs the senses to cultivate an intimate, intuitive experience that aims to transport participants through time as a reminder of the increasing levels of extinction caused by humanity.
Katie Paterson’s IHME Helsinki 2021 commission was born out of the artist’s fundamental drive to create artwork that heightens awareness of the sixth extinction. To Burn, Forest, Fire explores the scent of the first and last forests through the creation of bespoke incense sticks. The artist collaborated with scientists to define and characterise these forests, the scents of which have been made into incense and burned across a variety of sites around the city of Helsinki, and beyond.
The Earth’s first forest grew in modern-day Cairo, New York State, 385 million years ago. It was discovered through fossilised root systems containing three types of ancient plant species, including Archaeopteris, which had well-developed roots, a large trunk and branches with leaves. What would it have been like, this forest? A shady place of greens and browns, certainly, but probably with little other colour – the evolution of flowers was still a long way into the future. A quiet place, probably – not qui