Circles of Fire (variations)

John A Douglas

“I am a hybrid denatured human – a bi-product of the corporate matrix of bio-medical industries. My death has been postponed until further notice.”

This 23min video installation Circles of Fire (variations) is an allegorical retelling of John A Douglas' physical and emotional journey through the experience of receiving a donated kidney.

Using the epic 14th-century poem Dante's Inferno as a loose structural template, the work is divided into nine sections from the time of the phone call, the transplantation surgery, near death, healing and patient regimentation.

The surreal sequences signify the nightmarish transition between near death and healing, and were shot on location in the ‘Doors to Hell’ gas craters in the Karakum Desert, Turkmenistan and Spotted Lake in Canada, a First Nations sacred site sought for the powers of its therapeutic waters.