ART FEED: Benjamin Løzninger's Smoke//Fire

Benjamin Løzninger is quite the renaissance man--the French-born artist, who currently resides in Brooklyn, also makes music, directs videos, and works as a sound engineer, among many other things. He helped launch Super!, a Parisian musical talent agency that helped produce 2012's Pitchfork Paris festival. When he's not touring in support of his music (his latest release is the 2011 album Moving Targets), he works with FrenchBK, a creative collective he founded that's named after his status as a transatlantic expatriate.

And somewhere in there, Løzninger also finds time to take artistic photographs. His latest project is entitled Smoke//Fire, and features painted and/or digitally treated photographs of Brooklyn cityscapes, to which Løzninger has added the black smoke of nearby flames. It seems a subtle comment on the times of economic and political uncertainty we live in... but really, the presence of allegory is up to the viewer to determine. Løzninger's fiery scenes are not actively frightening, but evoke the trembling sense of disquiet one can feel when catching a scene of immense devastation out of the corner of your eye as you go about your daily routine.

A burning city. Thick smoke clouds fill the air with an intense smell. History always repeats itself: as at Nero’s times, a devastating fire run through the streets, through the buildings, threatening people’s life. Was it an arson or just an accident? The Smoke // Fire series is speaking about self-introspection through the discovery a new city, experimenting mystery, fascination, repulsion and sometimes fear.