Ash / Root / Rise is an interdisciplinary installation that traces the arc from wildfire devastation to ecological and human recovery, positioning regeneration as a shared, material, and social act. The work translates wildfire data—burn perimeters, duration, and scale—into a series of 3D-printed sculptural forms derived from GIS mappings of regional fires, including the Walker Ranch Fire (2000), Fourmile Canyon Fire (2010), Cold Springs Fire (2016), Cal-Wood Fire (2020), and Marshall Fire (2021). Each form is extruded vertically according to burn duration, while its diameter corresponds to the overall scale of the fire, transforming datasets into tactile records of time, magnitude, loss, and persistence. The Marshall Fire, though one of the shortest in duration, is represented as among the widest forms—underscoring its disproportionate destructiveness.

The installation incorporates elements from Warner’s Hybrid Matter series, where material instability and printing failures are not corrected but retained. Collapsed or deformed clay prints—often the result of structural stress during fabrication—are presented as one-of-a-kind sculptural works. These forms register breakdown, excess weight, and loss of structural legibility, paralleling moments when ecological systems exceed thresholds of stability. In this context, failure becomes generative: a record of pressure, imbalance, and transformation.

The installation centers on a single living sculpture: a lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) sapling growing within a transparent dome. Lodgepole pine is a fire-adapted species whose cones are sealed with resin and only release their seeds under the intense heat of wildfire. Fire, in this system, is not solely destructive—it is the necessary condition for renewal. This biology becomes both anchor and metaphor within the work. While the surrounding sculptures are fixed—finished with a custom mid-fire glaze incorporating locally sourced ash—the living pine introduces time, contingency, and transformation into the space.

Audience participation extends the work beyond its physical form. During the opening, visitors are invited to submit single-line drawings reflecting their personal experience with fire, memory, or environmental change. These drawings are translated into 3D-printed forms in the following week and become the basis for a collective workshop, where participants gather to produce additional sculptural elements. In this second phase, participants work with clay and ash-based materials and seed their sculptures with local plants. The works remain on view for the duration of the exhibition, allowing audiences to witness gradual growth, and are later taken into gardens or natural spaces, extending the project beyond the gallery.

The solitary sapling stands as the outcome of a latent process—growth made possible by prior destruction—suggesting that regeneration is often delayed, conditional, and dependent on rupture. Through the lens of lodgepole pine ecology, Ash / Root / Rise reframes recovery as a process initiated through disturbance, where destruction becomes the catalyst for future life and collective continuation.