For eons, the element of fire has defined our existence on earth. Alchemy transforming matter; wood into coal, earth into pottery, ore into metal, sand into glass. It has allowed humanity to survive in the wild, to harness the power of our environment, to build, to thrive. Fire is pervasive both in our daily lives and in our collective consciousness, “as a concept, an element, an informing principle, a deity, a metaphor, an allegory, a creation story.” Paradoxically, while its very nature is to destroy, cyclical fires invite renewal, rebirth and reawakening of dormant forces and forgotten seeds once sleeping deep beneath the earth's soil. In PICHULIK’s new Terra Therma Collection, translated as ‘Warm Earth’, we explore the ecology and metaphor of the beginnings of new life after a fire. Over the past few years, our world has been under collective siege, ravished by a devastating pandemic, crippled by corrupt leadership, and plagued by rampant conflict and war. This collection looks beyond the devastation and destruction, towards a time when the embers are glowing, the smoke is settling and from the ashes of the old, a new cycle of rejuvenation and growth begins. Like pods that can only open to release their seedlings through the signal of smoke, what new potential will be cued within us from the hardships of these times? What unnecessary foliage and deadwood will be burnt away to make a surface for new rains to nourish our soils? PICHULIK’s Terra Therma collection explores the answers to these questions.
