Grandmother Tree
The grandmother tree is a great place to come back to: to contemplate, to ask questions, to listen, to focus, to blur, to become, to unfold.
As you lay here below the branches or stand amidst the spiral, offering your own strength for the trunk, picture this:
there is no building, yet we are still where we are, here at this height, up in the canopy - rooted, connected.
Are we alone?
As you lay here below the branches or stand amidst the spiral, offering your own strength for the trunk, picture this:
there is no building, yet we are still where we are, here at this height, up in the canopy - rooted, connected.
Are we alone?
About the sculpture
This was one of the first 'inspired' sculptures I made after an influential chat with my prof Jesse, when I started 'reading the branches' and making things that they inspired me to make instead of the other way around. These branches were harvested on a walk last winter with my niblings!
I made a 4-foot version from a suspended rope web during a residency in May, but had visions of a 10-foot version that could be a central gathering place, with a carpet below it, where multiple people could lay and be together.
I made a 4-foot version from a suspended rope web during a residency in May, but had visions of a 10-foot version that could be a central gathering place, with a carpet below it, where multiple people could lay and be together.
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Introducing... the Donut.
I'm glad that architects measure things the way they do, but I measure things by making shapes in photoshop and trusting the process.
I'm glad that architects measure things the way they do, but I measure things by making shapes in photoshop and trusting the process.
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My architecture friend David and profs Jesse and Federica actually did help me a lot with the logistical design/planning of scaling this up, answering questions about wood thickness, bolt fastening, load and security, all the while seeking that ephemeral whimsical floating donut energy.
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I don't even know how many days I spent with my brother-in-law, taking over their driveway and building these pieces bit by bit, as She-Yang coached me on the power tools in their garage and helped me work through design challenges along the way. Charlotte and Luca were team paint-it-pink-with-sprinkles so I guess I'll have to build Donut 3.0 one day.
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Pretty much as soon as I finished probably the 20th hour of work on this donut, I realized that while I had 'hollowed out' the circle to make it lighter and to do a lighting effect later on, I had now removed the very material I would need to suspend branches from, if the spiral is to move inward; especially if the 10' carpet is going to be able to cue Blind/low-vision to the pokey face-height branches, the lower branches would need to be suspended closer to the inside of the circle.
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Introducing, fake branches! (Is it messed up to make branches out of plywood? It's like the chicken nugget of trees)
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These were actually super fun to make with the band saw, and I think are going to make install much easier (I'm going to find that out in the time between printing this and exhibition day). Embrace the mistakes!
After all of this time and labour building and finessing this giant circle, there was still a looming question... is it going to work?? Is it suspend-able? (Arborist rope/knot cross-training pulled through) So much gratitude to Kevin, Sara H., Paul and Jesse for coming out to the farm to test this under the Just Food pavilion! ...and a Donut was born! 😇 |
There have been many times throughout this process that I wondered whether I should stop/should already have stopped. An 8-foot version would have been a lot easier, for instance. At this moment I actually still don't know if it will 'work'. But, like the grandmother tree, it's something that I keep coming back to, and trusting. And like everything in this exhibit, trusting in the process, because that is the part that is making meaning. I don't know the result but I know what it's been like and how much I (for some reason) care, and I trust that that energy will get passed on to you... So that when you come and visit or revisit the grandmother tree, whatever form of spiral it ends up spiralling will surround and encompass you with warmth and wonder and calm and suspension of time and place.
coworking
Special thanks to...
She-Yang, David, Jesse, Kevin, Sara H., Paul, Dad, Sara A. and Just Food, Nikki, Charlotte and Luca