Fire is not only seen as humanity’s earliest and most potent symbol when confronting nature, but is also intimately bound up with our inner experiences. Gazing into the flames itself carries a primal dreamlike quality and an inherent danger: the flickering and shifting of the fire can lead the viewer into a near-reverie state, prompting emotional projection and self-immersion. Contemplating fire becomes a kind of spiritual “adventure,” capable of awakening the desires and impulses buried in the unconscious while possibly guiding us toward either self-transcendence or destructive explorations.
Fire embodies the conflict between human reason and desire—offering warmth and light yet also bringing forth destruction and suffering. Its “dual nature” is reflected within the human mind: warmth and searing heat, salvation and devouring, creation and destruction, all interwoven in a single flame.
At the same time, fire’s “image” is never fixed, extending beyond mere physical combustion to serve as a projection of the spirit. At the intersection of artificial intelligence and hand-drawn painting, tradition and the future, fire ignites a new form of life—its flames ceaselessly growing, consuming, and transforming. Within the interplay of the real and the illusory, it presents a tension of blazing intensity and wandering disorientation, of annihilation coexisting with creation.
When we gaze upon the flame, its flickering light and heat conjure boundless imagination and a sense of trance, as though we were witnessing an endlessly shifting current of our own subconscious desires. In “Burning,” the human figure appears as a mirror reflecting the flame’s inner world: simultaneously poised at the boundary of emergence and extinction, allowing the viewer to experience the primordial power of fire while becoming aware of humanity’s vulnerability and longing in the face of this symbolic blaze.
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