Flare (Oceania)
Video, 2022
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About the artwork
Flare (Oceania), 2022 features a gas flare burning in the form of a flag in the South Pacific Ocean near Tonga. Inspired by the late Tongan activist and artist Uili Lousi whose statement ‘The Ocean is Burning’ in Madrid in 2019 lit the fire that gave rise to the work, Flare (Oceania) meditates on the existential threat that heating oceans pose to low-lying lands, as well as the economic and geopolitical factors contributing to the climate crisis. The artist describes Flare as an alarm for the burning present.
The work is a continuous simulation made using real-time computer graphics software. Every frame is generated live at approximately 50 frames per second, no two moments repeating. The simulation is locked to the computer's clock: the sun rises and sets at the exact times it would near Tonga, South Pacific Ocean. Day lengths shifting across a full 365-day cycle.
The collector downloads and runs the software on a local PC, accompanied by a paper certificate of authenticity or an Ethereum blockchain token serving as on-chain proof of ownership.
Commissioned by Bridgitt Evans.
Producer: Werner Poetzelberger
Programmer: Helmut Bressler
Ocean Photography : Uili Lousi + Community.
Exhibition design by Jakob Illera/Inseq.
Flare (Oceania) was commissioned by Bridgitt Evans.
Presented in loving memory of Uili Lousi.
john gerrard is a pivotal figure in the development of simulation within contemporary art. The artist’s works are real-time digital simulations built with game-engine technology, occupying an uncanny territory between documentary precision and technological mediation. Neither film nor video, the works are autonomous virtual worlds that unfold according to their own internal logic, some synchronised to actual solar and atmospheric conditions, others driven by algorithmic choreography, others reconstructing historical moments within contemporary landscapes.
For more than two decades, gerrard's practice has examined the hidden architectures of contemporary power: the industrial structures, energy networks, and algorithmic systems that underpin modern existence yet remain largely invisible to those who depend on them. From the factory farms of Oklahoma to the data centres of middle America, from the solar thermal plants of the Nevada desert to the oil fields of Spindletop, Texas, gerrard renders visible the material substrates of a networked world.
Work is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; and other major institutions. Multiple works are held in LACMA's permanent collection including washington.stream, Solar Reserve (Tonopah, Nevada), and World Flag. gerrard was recipient of the Art + Technology Lab Grant at LACMA in 2017, producing Neural Exchange, an early exploration of art, performance and AI neural networks.
Major presentations include Channel 4's Earth Day broadcast, 2017; Somerset House, London, 2017; Desert X (Palm Springs), 2019; the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, at COP25, 2019; Okayama Art Summit, Japan, curated by Pierre Huyghe; Dark Mofo, Tasmania, 2023; the Hayward Gallery, London, 2023; U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere, Las Vegas, 2023; and the Folkestone Triennial, 2025. A current commission, SPIRITS, unfolds across LACMA from December 2025 through December 2026.