The Contraption For A Council Of Seven
168″ x 246″ x 84″
Wood, metal, rope
2022
2022 Mid-Career Fellowship Artist
Artist Statement
I built a machine that the trees crank slowly but constantly as they move in the wind. This movement tightens a chain, wrapped completely around this contraption, crushing it. In a futile fight with nature where our survival depends on these forces, life devours and the struggle itself ends in death. I felt 7 years far from my 14 years’ experience working as a rope-supported arborist. The inherent risks, exposure to the elements, and intensity with material, all feed into my sculptural practice. Violence lay in the act: confined spaces, extreme weights, the revved 2-cycle gas chainsaw, my soft flesh, the ever diminished structural integrity of the tree. I maintain vigilance and admiration of these beasts of nature, mammoths of the Kingdom Plantae, skyscrapers of wood, rising into the sky from their mighty base of tangled roots, grand and regal. The form of a tree is its story, marking its journey through life. The elements; wind, rain, ice, lightning, leave their scar. Their memories are 3-dimensional.
The notion that humankind can win a war against a force upon which it depends is odd. Perhaps technological advancements, or lack thereof, are not the whole problem but rather could it be that dominant problem solving methods lead us in the wrong direction? I recently went to the archeological site of Xanten, a Roman outpost in Germany. There I saw a crane made of wooden A-frames and pulleys. Although dominant culture has slowly moved past the technological innovations used by the Romans, in the least we have the combustion engine. Did not those Romans pass on calendars, civilization vs. nature, private property, numeration of individuals? Our bodies, like our Tree cousins, are commodities. Thanks Empire. The Franks destroyed Xanten.
I pledge allegiance to the Earth of the United States of the Universe. – Prince