Artist Kate MccGwire get the idea on her Insular art project after a severe fire at her studio in 2007. While a majority of her work was destroyed, she was forced to leave old bodies of work behind and start afresh, with new ways of working.

Left amongst the charred remains was a large stack of paper, which although charred on the outside remained a brilliant, perfect white in the center. Kate was fascinated by the possibility that this eminently flammable material had not in fact burnt. She then strated the Insular project where she literally controlled the destructive force of fire on paper.

In Insular, Kate literally and metaphorically plays with fire; a hole burnt into the 50 layers of paper resembles an inverted map. The unexpected beauty and fragility of the incinerated papers, however, is subverted by the heresy of the action.