Firebird by Kythe Heller
Kythe Heller’s Firebird sequence probes the capacity of the human spirit to endure under extreme conditions. Here, fire is both a destructive and a unifying force, altering people and landscapes. Runaways, the sick and the poor, a forest and a smoldering mattress — these stunning images burn themselves into the reader’s imagination. The female body becomes the site of trauma and myth, a place where “everything is burning, has been and is always burning.”
Fiercely intelligent and relentlessly visceral, Firebird renders the world with singular clarity: “there were so many things that would look—nice—if they were seen through flames.”
Kythe Heller’s Firebird sequence probes the capacity of the human spirit to endure under extreme conditions. Here, fire is both a destructive and a unifying force, altering people and landscapes. Runaways, the sick and the poor, a forest and a smoldering mattress — these stunning images burn themselves into the reader’s imagination. The female body becomes the site of trauma and myth, a place where “everything is burning, has been and is always burning.”
Fiercely intelligent and relentlessly visceral, Firebird renders the world with singular clarity: “there were so many things that would look—nice—if they were seen through flames.”
Kythe Heller’s Firebird sequence probes the capacity of the human spirit to endure under extreme conditions. Here, fire is both a destructive and a unifying force, altering people and landscapes. Runaways, the sick and the poor, a forest and a smoldering mattress — these stunning images burn themselves into the reader’s imagination. The female body becomes the site of trauma and myth, a place where “everything is burning, has been and is always burning.”
Fiercely intelligent and relentlessly visceral, Firebird renders the world with singular clarity: “there were so many things that would look—nice—if they were seen through flames.”
