In Between Before and After, Asef-Burckhardt, sound installation, transducers, paper, redwood charcoal pieces, ropes, 2024, photos: Mario Asef

Redwood trees are land dwellers that are among the oldest living beings on this planet. Some trees are 2000 years old. Today, their numbers have been reduced to a few percent by their use as building material, also at The Sea Ranch. Wildfires accelerate the CO2 problem due to the lack of photosynthesis.

For their sound installation “In Between Before and After”, Asef-Burckhardt collected charred wood from sequoia forest fires. These charcoal pieces are set on a room-sized paper installation. Two transducer loudspeakers, attached to the paper, make the paper vibrate as a sound membrane, thereby causing the charcoal to tremble, creating dust and lines that draw traces of their conversation audible in the room. The spoken word emanating from the loudspeakers combines Asef-Burckhardt’s research and conversations, between dystopic and caring visions, asking: What could you write with a piece of burned Redwood charcoal that is not painful?