“Growth Requires Sacrifice:” Bianca Velasquez’s “Prescribed Burn”

Tucked away between Reservoir Park and the University of Utah is the charming Finch Lane Gallery. Inside, you will find artwork displayed at every corner and beautiful pieces created by local Utah artists.

With exhibitions rotating in and out of the gallery, several artists have graced Finch Lane’s walls. This month, Finch Lane is showcasing two amazing exhibitions, “IRL,” a collaboration between Brenna Cooper, Jeremiah Parkin and Lizzie Windsor, and “Prescribed Burn” by Bianca Velasquez.

“Prescribed Burn” is a brilliant and stunning exhibition. Velasquez first became inspired to work on the exhibition after watching Fire Tender by Roni Joe Draper, a film about the indigenous and matriarchal practice of cultural burns. She said the 16 pieces that make up “Prescribed Burn” explore the beauty that can emerge from destruction. “What I thought was really beautiful was the metaphor within … comparing it to the human condition of sacrifice and destruction and catastrophe in order to prevent larger fires, per se,” Velasquez says.

“Prescribed Burn,” Velasquez says, should feel almost “medicinal” for people viewing the exhibition. “It’s almost like ‘Yeah, [change] it’s gonna suck, that’s gonna hurt, and then you will heal, and there will be a scar … and then you’ll be better for it,” Velasquez says. “But there’s still grief involved, and there’s still doubt and fear, so it’s a little spooky, scary in some spots.”

She wants people to reflect on what they may need to “burn” from their lives to make room for better things. “I just want people to go and have those questions,” Velasquez says. “Are there things that they need to let go of or that they have [let go of] and can reflect and be grateful for having let them go?”

She likened the exhibition’s message to a bad breakup or trading a stable job for financial insecurity. From Velasquez’s point of view, these things hurt but can result in something good. In other words, “growth requires sacrifice,” as she wrote in her artist’s statement. “Those hard things that on the surface could seem disastrous, but really, ultimately, it’s for the greater good down the line,” Velasquez says.

The exhibition features work masterfully crafted from a mixture of materials, like acrylic paint and beads. It’s colorful. It’s pearlescent. It’s tactile, almost calling out for you to touch it. You shouldn’t, of course, but the textures, as they shimmer in the sunlight, create a three-dimensional and lovely feast for the eyes.

“It’s hand-stitched beaded art … It ranges [in material]. That’s why I’m like, ‘You should probably just go look at it,’” Velasquez says. “I just got weird and found some weird solutions for some stuff.”

One of the pieces, “When you can’t see me through the smoke,” is a vision of a red-orange haze, cast like a net over a blue background. Behind the haze, blue figures look back at you. Just to the right of this piece is “Know that I am poised to grow.” It’s almost an inverse of “When you can’t see me through the smoke,” with a blue haze and red figures.

These pieces highlight fire, nature and infrastructure. I found them, and the entire exhibition really, to be timely with the current string of wildfires burning throughout Utah and across the planet. While these fires did not necessarily inspire “Prescribed Burn,” Velasquez acknowledged the conversation the exhibition has with current events. “I didn’t really plan for it to be like ‘and then there’s wildfires outside,’” she says.

Velasquez says, however, the exhibition connects to the wildfires in the sense of ruin and its path to rebirth. “I just want to tell that story … and have people absorb it and just see it for what it is,” she says.

The Finch Lane Gallery began displaying “Prescribed Burn” on July 27, and it will remain on display until Sept. 4.

Read more about local artists and their exhibitions:
Artist Jessica Smith Says Do What You Love, Even If It Takes You 30 Years
Food, Nostalgia and Connection in Mercedes Nokyi Ng’s Art

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