Still Burning (2021)

The work reflects on the unfulfilled vision of Martin Luther King Jr., whose dream of racial harmony remains suspended between hope and reality. Decades later, systemic inequities continue to endure, often normalized, often overlooked. The global resonance of the Black Lives Matter movement underscores this repetition, revealing cycles of remembrance and forgetting that demand attention.

At the center stands a life-sized, charred human figure, fragmented, eroded, and unstable. Constructed through wood, burning, and electronic simulation, the body becomes a site where violence is not simply depicted but materially embedded. The scorched surface, illuminated by glowing embers, suggests a state of ongoing combustion. The fire operates here as both attraction and threat, illuminating even as it consumes. The figure exists between presence and erasure, embodying endurance, vulnerability, and transformation.

The text, Still Burning and End Racism, functions as a direct yet unresolved call. Rather than offering closure, it invites reflection and implicates the viewer in an act of witnessing. Positioned at human scale, the work collapses distance, creating an immediate and confrontational encounter.

Situated within a Canadian context, Still Burning challenges the perception that racial injustice exists elsewhere. It questions the ease of multicultural narratives while acknowledging their tensions. Ultimately, the work holds space for an unresolved reality, one in which history continues to smolder, demanding recognition, responsibility, and change.