Fuel Ladder: Holding Fire at Well Well in Portland, Oregon

Fuel Ladder is an interdisciplinary research collective of artists, designers, and thinkers in and around Eugene, Oregon, who are exploring climate crisis through the social and ecological complexities of wildfire. As a collective working at the intersections of contemporary art and climate, we cultivate collaboration through practice-based research, engaging on-the-ground experiences of climate crisis through the stories, metaphors, and materials of wildfire in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Our collective cultivates a dispersed network of nodes for exchange based in conversation, correspondence, and creation of objects and experiences. We seek to invite diverse participants and communities into regional explorations of wildfire and its cycles of both destruction and renewal. 

Karin Bolender’s Rural Alchemy Workshop (R.A.W.) foregrounds ‘untold’ stories and experimental anarchives within meshes of mammals, plants, and microbes. William Bonner’s hybrid practice investigates the intersection of design, ecology, and technology, utilizing installation pieces to highlight and communicate the importance and beauty of living processes. David Buckley Borden’s place-based projects use humorous combinations of visual art and landscape design to center environmental issues within everyday phenomena. Brian Gillis engages site-specific histories and partnerships, intentionally blurring lines between artist, designer, educator, community organizer, and anonymous steward. Colin Ives positions his practice as a speculative research-based endeavor, positing that our digital tools are changing not only our capabilities, but also our worldview. Emily Eliza Scott is a leading scholar, educator and former park ranger focused on art that addresses the climate crisis and seeks to actively transform real-world conditions. Nancy Silvers explores identity and ecology at scales that range from a single thread to acres of landscape through her work with textiles, wood, paint, and plants. Sasha Michelle White’s practice centers fire-adapted plants as a way of understanding the material, social and ecological relationships of Oregon’s fire-prone landscapes. 

Fuel Ladder received support and funding from The Universities of Oregon’s Center for Art Research, The Ford Family Foundation, and Converge 45.