Four bird cages were placed in the stairwell on the 2nd floor of the OK Center. Inside is a sparrow, but before long the sparrow is replaced by a flame, and if you listen carefully a voice emerges. As I wondered who was speaking, what I heard next from the flame was the excited voice of Hitler. Finally I understood, the owners of these voices were Franklin D. Roosevelt, Mussolini, Stalin... Their radio speeches from World War II were emerging from the flame.

What Paul Demarinis, the artist, was interested in was the history of radio. Although it became the first form of broadcast media, it seems the radio was first developed as a scientific way of communicating with the spirits of the dead, and later became a way for people to communicate over distances.

In the 1920s, the radio as transmitted media became a powerful tool for politics. Political voices were heard in homes for the first time and people accepted the ideas and criticism presented to them. In 1935, the public gathered in front of the radio instead of the fireplace and Roosevelt called his radio broadcasts "Fireside Chats".

A Fireside Chat transmitted in 1935 about reconsidering the savings system was the speech featured in this installation. Roosevelt, Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini all used the radio effectively.

Okay, what about the flame? According to Demarinis, the fire is a metaphor for the political speeches, what lit the world on fire. The other mystery of this installation is that the fire becomes the speaker. It is not well known, but when you apply voltage to fire, it is sucked inward acquiring the property of electrical conductivity. Sound is transmitted by vibrations in the air, and since the air vibrates due to the heat of the flame, it becomes a producer of sound.

Graham Bell's little brother Mervil was the first to discover that fire conducts electricity. It seems that the audio device he created consisted of two wires and fire according to the patent.

There's a lot of history packed into this small installation. Demarinis spend a long time researching radios and fire, and that time spent on this subject is trapped in the bird cage. Light bulbs and the sound of the Earth were definitely interesting, but this exhibit certainly surpasses all in its experimentation and new expressiveness.

Enjoy this artwork.