© Marilene Ribeiro, Open Fire 3

A pioneering visual artist who burns her own work to highlight the ongoing threat of wildfires caused by climate change will be exhibiting her unique images at the University of Winchester’s West Downs Gallery.

Open Fire is an award-winning multimedia project created by Marilene Ribeiro, a former Visiting Research Fellow at the School of Media and Film.

Using an analogue camera Marilene photographed conservation areas in her homeland of Brazil and then, after developing the film, she burned it to replicate the process which has erased many of its natural and cultural landscapes.

The resulting three-dimensional pieces have been digitised and displayed alongside captions and narrations, in Marilene’s own voice, drawing on news stories about the wildfires as well as her own insights.

Open Fire has been awarded the Photoworks Digital Residency Award, as part of the Royal Geographical Society’s prestigious Earth Photo 2024 contest, as well as the Pictures Of the Year Latin America (POY Latam) / Environment Photography Award 2023 and Brazil’s National Arts Foundation Marc Ferrez Photography Prize.

To find out more and to book tickets for the exhibition and opening round table event on 2 October please go to the direct link.