Gulf of Mexico (2021) depicts the bright flames, dubbed the "eye of fire," that erupted from an underwater gas leak in the Gulf of Mexico on July 3, 2021. The leak caused a swirling fire vortex to erupt from the ocean west of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. It took over five hours to extinguish the blaze—a brief yet haunting episode in the ongoing narrative of environmental crises. Tan Mu began painting the Gulf of Mexico the moment she saw the breaking news. By the time the fire was declared extinguished, the piece was complete—an immediate act of documentation reflecting her deep interest in capturing events as they unfold. In an age dominated by rapid digital media, this work reclaims painting’s role as a witness to the present. The urgency of the Gulf of Mexico speaks to the fragile intersection of nature, industry, and disaster. It asks how we process and remember such fleeting yet powerful moments, reminding us that even after the flames fade, their significance endures.

Q: What inspired the creation of Gulf of Mexico?

Tan Mu: This work continues my focus on capturing immediate events, and the catalyst for its creation was the 2021 offshore oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which led to a massive fire. I was deeply drawn to the videos of the incident that first appeared on social media, showing the collision of water and fire and the multiple conflicts embedded in humanity’s desire to transform energy. The tension between natural forces and human intervention is a recurring theme in my work. The painting was created with strong immediacy, from the eruption of the news to the completion of the piece. I began painting the day I saw the video, using stills from the helicopter footage as reference. The entire process took a few hours, and interestingly, by the time I finished, the news reported that the fire had been extinguished. The synchronicity between the artwork's creation and the event's unfolding lends the piece a unique documentary quality.

Q: What significance does the oil rig structure hold for you in this painting?

Tan Mu: This is the first time I’ve fully depicted the oil rig structure in my work, and it holds great significance in my visual memory. As a child, I often saw offshore natural gas rigs along the coast of Yantai, and I was fascinated by how these man-made structures transported energy through pipelines and redefined spatial relationships within the natural environment. Additionally, as a free diver, I frequently encounter these industrial landscapes when I dive underwater. Just last month, on December 29, 2024, while diving off the coast of Curaçao, I emerged from the water to see this massive industrial structure towering above the sea surface, creating a stark contrast with its complex underwater counterpart. This contrast prompted me to reflect on the intricate relationship between such industrial facilities and marine ecosystems. These observations eventually found expression through the Gulf of Mexico piece. The burning oil rig in the painting represents both a crystallization of personal memory and a monument to humanity's dependence on energy.

Q: Burning scenes also appear in other works of yours. What symbolic meaning does fire hold in your art?

Tan Mu: To me, fire is the perfect metaphor for primal energy, and its use marks the beginning of human civilization. The flames in Gulf of Mexico are especially poignant—industrial fires burning in vast waters subtly suggest the eternal struggle between human society and the laws of nature. Whether it’s the explosion from the Gulf spill or the riots depicted in my other works Philadelphia (2020) and Minneapolis (2020) during the pandemic, I am fascinated by the instantaneous and destructive nature of fire—it both gives birth to life and brings devastation. This duality extends to my portrayal of urban riots and social conflicts, where the firelight becomes a visual translation of collective anxiety.

Q: How do you perceive the value of painting as a medium of record?

A: I have always viewed my paintings as time capsules, capturing key moments in history that often serve as anchor points in our memories. Interestingly, about a year after I completed this painting, the shipper responsible for packaging and sending it to me remarked with surprise that he remembered the event. He was Mexican, and it was a major event in his hometown. In that moment, I felt the profound power of painting as a vessel for collective memory. It is not just an individual response to an event. Still, through the materiality of the canvas (its two-inch thickness, its physical presence), it pulls the viewer back to a specific historical moment, acting as an anchor point in a chain of events, evoking personal memories from a shared collective experience.