TreeLines
Downloadable Curator’s Essay for TreeLines
TreeLines Sculpture Park Exhibition & Purification Series by Thomas Matsuda
Sculptor Thomas Matsuda created Purification Series on-site at the end of May 2006 as part of the Inside/Outside: TreeLines exhibition. The five tall standing works of charred wood and the blackened earth were created from burning a dead pine tree from Abington Art Center’s woodlands. The burning left behind a black deeply-charred surface. Their stark presence is meant to conjure up ideas of life, death, rebirth, and the burning away of illusions and desires.
After shaping the pillars of pine deadfall with a chain saw, Thomas Matsuda grouped them together and surrounded them with kindling. This piece was inspired by Buddhism and the Hopi Prophecy:”…sacred writing speaks the word of the Great Spirit, what shall we bring forth, purification or destruction?” Prior to the burning, Matsuda asked onlookers to reflect on the current world situations, he chanted the prophecy and “purified” the area by burning a sage smudge stick. Matsuda studied with the renowned Buddhist sculptor Koukei Eri in Kyoto. His work reminds us of nature s creative as well as destructive forces. Matsuda will also exhibit his meditation drawings made from charcoal created by the burning process. Matsuda lives and works in Conway, MA.
The resulting sculpture stands at the bottom of the Sculpture Park lawn and is visible from the Art Center’s terrace. It is a powerful and quietly beautiful piece of sculpture.
Detail of “Purification Series” by Thomas Matsuda
Watch the WHYY Experience video about Abington Art Center & Thomas Matsuda
AAC’s second season of new installations in the Sculpture Park and galleries, Inside/Outside: TreeLines, featured the work of six artists whose sculptures and installations draw both literal and figurative connections to trees. The works in the exhibition were diverse, ranging in medium from burned wood, to fabrics, to traditional bronze. Some of the artists made direct use of trees from the Art Center’s Sculpture Park. In the works of Thomas Matsuda and Chrysanne Stathacos, a meditative space is provided through the artists use of ritual. Jason Middlebrook offers a different type of solace, providing our squirrel neighbors with a bridge sculpture of their own. Steve Tobin’s bronze Root sculptures turn nature directly into art and provoke a sense of wonder at the tree s hidden intricacy. Robert Lobe changes the landscape by wrapping trees in a way that is very industrial and unnatural. Joy Episalla’s scrim photograph blends into the woodland landscape like a distant English folly. The artists in TreeLines enable us to have a new vantage point in considering the connections between our busy lives and the natural world.
“Roots” by Steve Tobin
Steve Tobin
To create his bronze sculptures of tree roots, Steve Tobin excavates dead roots as large as 30 feet in diameter and then casts them in bronze. It can take up to 200 castings to make a single piece. The natural structure, from the trunk down to the tiniest roots, are cast individually and then welded together. Tobin s objective with these sculptures is to make the unseen realm visible. His most famous sculpture from the root series is Trinity Root 9.11 a memorial sculpture installed at Trinity Church in New York City. Tobin s work is in the collections of museums such as the American Craft Museum in New York, the Philadelphia Art Museum, and in the White House. He lives and works in Coopersburg, PA.
Chrysanne Stathacos
Chrysanne Stathacos creates opportunities for reflection and connection to the natural world through installations, performances, videos and public art. For TreeLines she created, Refuge, a Wish Garden, an interactive artwork around a large tree for making wishes, meditating and healing. Visitors are encouraged to participate in the artwork by tying colorful strips of fabric (wishes) into the tree.
“We Live in a Selfish World (I just want to watch squirrels run across my bridge)” by Jason Middlebrook
Jason Middlebrook
Jason Middlebrook lives and works in Brooklyn, but has spent time living in the midwest and on the west coast. His art involves themes drawn from ecology, geology, archeology, and art history and speaks to this country’s paradoxical attitudes about nature. His interest in the importance of trees as ecological providers led him to create a series of bridges for squirrels spanning various tree lengths.
“Untitled Metamorphosis” by Robert Lobe
Robert Lobe
New York City artist Robert Lobe finds real trees and rocks in the natural landscape, and hammers large sheets of aluminum around them to create free-standing trees stripped of color, detail, and texture by a uniform, hard, metallic surface. Lobe s sculptures are a kind of sculptural trompe-l’oeil. They explore the relationships between human technology and nature, and can serve as environmental warnings. Lobe has used sites in New Jersey, the Adirondacks, the Berkshires, and Nova Scotia. His work is included in the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Brooklyn Museum, Newark Museum, Walker Art Center, and the Whitney.
“Grand Tetons of Yonkers” by Joy Episalla
Joy Episalla
Joy Episalla installed a large scrim photo-mural titled Grand Tetons of Yonkers between two trees in the Art Center woods. When viewed in the context of our woodland, the iconic mountains, evergreens, and water overlap and blur into the existing landscape of trees, becoming part of the scenery like a distant English folly. Joy Episalla has been exhibiting extensively in the U.S. and internationally including the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus; Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago; The Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans; and Studio 1.1, London.
