Burnt Map (Kaio) Round, 2022

Laser-engraved Wood

40 x 50 x 3 cm

Unique

These laser-engraved and cut wooden pieces emerged from a longer engagement with wildfire-affected landscapes in Greece. After encountering the immediate aftermath of nearby forest fires, Nonnenmacher began collecting burned bark and wood from the region — material that held both physical trauma and symbolic weight. The blackened textures, fractures, and scars in the wood became a point of departure for a series of sculptural studies.

Laser engraving, typically associated with precision and control, is here applied to material already shaped by destruction. Rather than imposing order, the laser acts as a second layer of inscription — one that echoes the original burning while introducing a new, systematized language. The works investigate the overlap of natural trauma and technological intervention, where the surface becomes a field of dual legibility: both organic and encoded.

In these pieces, fire and machine meet as competing authors of form. Their marks — one chaotic and unpredictable, the other calibrated and repeatable — question the aesthetic and ecological role of destruction in an age increasingly defined by automated systems. The charred surfaces suggest aftermath, while the engraved patterns hint at preservation, mapping, or even a speculative form of digital memory.