2014, idea, wood, moss, ink

This piece was originally proposed to a sculpture park in Southern Illinois, as a work that addressed a large stump left after a diseased tree had to be cut down. A work relying on the natural cycles of death, deacy and growth, it can and will later be adapted to another site. The full proposal can be read below. 

When a tree falls in the forest it is far from the end of its story. It 

decomposes, and as its individual life fades, it creates a new life, 

a complex ecosystem of plants, fungi and varied fauna. Nature 

creates on it’s own, carving into the fallen tree, mapping out 

designs, drawing, but mostly crafting life. The eleven-foot stump 

in the parking lot at Cedarhurst Sculpture Park has been

marooned in cement, isolated. I intend to repurpose it as a small 

green space, and to rededicate it to the environment by recreating 

natural processes by human means. I will hollow out the top two 

feet of the tree, and plant a small evergreen shrub at the top, that 

will grow in the form of a tree, mimicking the structure that’s 

supporting it, and symbolizing the regeneration of life in nature. In 

turn, I will copy the termite, and burrow tunnels into the outside of 

the tree, both exposing its interior, and providing pathways in 

which I will grow moss. My hope is that my small intervention will 

in turn encourage more life. By the end of this project, and the 

eventual disintegration of the stump, I optimistically anticipate the 

moss will have grown out to cover the entire body, and new life 

will have taken hold.