My body of work, As The Burning Wheel Turns, centers around my experiences and perceptions of my Latvian-American culture through the broader context of fire. I explore the cyclicality of culture, and how it originates from primitive, raw forces (such as fire) and then expands and shifts into key cultural celebrations, rituals, and adaptations in contemporary life while still pertaining to the central theme.

As The Burning Wheel Turns consists of photographs from the Midsummer’s festival in Latvia, 2023, through the present day in Richmond, Virginia and back home in Massachusetts. I focus on my relationship with fire and its connection to Latvian-American culture. The cyclicality of Latvian culture is represented through the bond between fire and circular objects used in rituals: wheels, wreaths, the communal bonfire, and the overall shape of the exhibition. While these motifs appear in photographs over multiple years, each time a wheel, wreath or fire is displayed, it is subtly different from the previous iteration, representing the slight shift in culture to adapt to slightly different circumstances.

Frames and wood burning done by hand, printed on archival inkjet paper; approximately 12ftx12ft.