FACING FIRE: ART, WILDLIFE AND THE END OF NATURE IN THE NEW WEST, the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art’s featured exhibit this fall, depicts “burn art” and captures the emotions and damage that wildfires cause through photography, paintings and other art forms.

Shannon Erickson, the coordinator of learning and engagement at the on-campus museum, highlighted a part of the exhibit done by photographer Norma I. Quintana, whose house burned down. She lost almost everything, including her photography supplies.

Quintana carefully staged charred items on a rubber glove and photographed them with her phone camera.

“People, even in seeing something as simple as a glove and an object, can really resonate with people in ways I never imagined,” Quintana said. “And it wasn’t even intentional, it was what I did.”

Erickson said each item was intended to “trigger a memory” of each loss experienced in the blaze.

“We kind of tell our stories by the things that we collect,” Erickson said. “Your memories are triggered by these objects.”

Other photos in the exhibit include ones by Christian Houge that feature taxidermy animals, including an elk, a puma, an eagle, an owl and a wolf. Erickson said Houge wanted to “set them free” by burning and photographing the deceased animals, letting them “move on.”

Photographer Kevin Cooley’s work is also on display. His staged pictures capture controlled burning as well as display those affected, or unaffected, by wildfire.

One titled “Screentime” portrays a young child fixated on a tablet or mobile device, seemingly without knowledge that a roaring fire is happening all around them. Another illustrates people playing basketball while miles away, a mountain is ablaze, but the players don’t seem to pay it any mind.

The exhibit also features photographer Noah Berger. His work includes a gallery of the 2013 Rim Fire outside Yosemite, an event that sparked his interest in fires and capturing their destruction.

Berger follows fires how he pleases and chooses his own assignments based on what fires are happening and what he thinks is newsworthy. He said going near fires doesn’t “feel as dangerous as it looks in the photos.”

The exhibit also includes a short film, titled “California On Fire,” that documents different emotions that come with experiencing fires. The film, made by Jeff Frost, is divided into separate parts, displaying denial, anger, bargaining, sadness and acceptance.

The exhibit has been a long time coming. Erickson said that it takes years to curate a collection like this, with varying artists and art forms used to depict fire and the destruction it brings.

The museum is open on Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Wednesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The exhibit runs until Dec. 16.