Mpungo, in Palo, a mpungu refers to a powerful spirit or spiritual force associated with nature and elemental powers. It depicts a reconstructed forest emerging from the aftermath of the Grindstone Fire at Jomeokee Mountain. I created the drawing using charcoal and pigments recovered from the fire's remnants, transforming the material residue of destruction into an image of regeneration. Rather than documenting the landscape as it appeared, I reconstruct it through the physical remains of the event, allowing the forest to emerge from the same matter that records its destruction.

By returning the remnants of the burned forest to the surface of the drawing, I collapse the distinction between subject and material: the forest is not simply represented; its remains participate in its reconstruction. Mpungo therefore functions as both image and residue, holding together absence and presence, destruction and renewal.