Raphaele Shirley, "Still - 100 Pink Smoke Flares (Twice)"

Description

Raphaele Shirley, "Still - 100 Pink Smoke Flares (Twice)"
36 x 20.5 inches
Archival pigment print

Artist Bio: Raphaele Shirley is a Franco-American artist with studios based in Callicoon, New York, and New York City. Her work explores questions of space and scale, time past and future, and engages deeply with themes of dystopia, utopia, and the complexities of hope within the human experience. Drawing from elements of civilization—such as architecture, science, and art history—as well as from natural phenomena including wind, water, and light, her practice creates a portrait of the possible: of parallel universes and transient states.
Central to her process is the integration of chance, allowing access—through environmental or social intervention—to elemental energies and fertile zones of possibility. Shirley approaches art in a free-handed manner, treading lightly in her attempt to harness the ephemeral. Her work fuses minimalist aesthetics with technology while leaving space for the unexpected.
She has exhibited both nationally and internationally at venues such as CAS, The Emily Harvey Foundation, the Queens Museum, the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the 2nd Moscow Biennale, Art Basel Miami, and the Kai Art Center in Estonia. Her work has been supported by grants from the Wave Farm Foundation, Harvestworks, and the Norwegian Arts Council.

Artist Statement: Video still from the live performance 100 Pink Smoke Flares (twice), presented by Catskill Art Space in June 2025 for the Deep Water Literary Festival in Narrowsburg, NY. In this site-specific work by Raphaele Shirley, 200 smoke flares were ignited simultaneously to momentarily obscure the landscape, evoking both natural beauty and ecological distress in the age of the Anthropocene. Referencing Romantic landscape painting and site-specific practice, the piece explores impermanence, transformation, and the emotional charge of environmental, social, and political change—evoking emergency and celebration at once.