The Ground of Fire is a reflection on human existence within its living environment, amid a natural world that has gradually become unfamiliar to us. The Ground of Fire presents works that reawaken the human instinct for survival in a world that is inherently unstable, yet often perceived as secure through our domestication by ownership and the illusion of stability itself.

Throughout this exhibition, Lutfi Yanuar consistently employ an eclectic approach and the conceptual use of materials. The first five paintings are fragments of Artist life and the lives of those around the artist in Bandung, representing the texture of everyday human experience today. These scenes are constructed as existential spaces, where human figures appear without personal identity, emphasizing the collective identity as a single species that remains inseparable from nature. The human figures are rendered with floral motifs inspired by Kalpataru, the tree of life, using marble powder and sand as grounding, tactile materials that are fragile yet resilient. The spaces of daily life are composed with lyrical, dissolving ink, accompanied by embroidery as a symbol of ecological interconnectedness, forming a unified field of life. The following twenty four drawings were produced during the residency process as a deeper exploration of the core ideas through historical and geological perspectives. These works draw upon archival materials from the Bandung Sea of Fire in 1946, volcanic ash from the 2019 eruption of Mount Tangkuban Perahu, and geological understandings of Bandung, particularly the Lembang Fault. The final work produced during this residency is a site-specific installation using volcanic ash deposits from the 2019 eruption of Mount Tangkuban Perahu, combined with local soil and food crop seeds gathered around the residency site. Artist body is imprinted onto the ash surface, then covered with seeds and left to grow through the processes of time, space, sedimentation, and natural growth. This bodily imprint recalls the casts found in Pompeii, preserving human presence as absence and pointing to a shared memory of volcanic vulnerability and resilience across time and cultures. This work seeks to shift the perception of human position from the center toward becoming part of a cycle. It reflects the idea that resilience does not emerge from domination, but from an understanding of how natural cycles operate.