Sapporo International Art Festival 2014

<Tree Lying in State:

Indications of Light Competition>

 

This art work ‘Tree Lying in State - Indications of Light Competition ‘ is part of the Sapporo International Art Festival 2014 exhibition titled Coordinate Axes of Time: ‘City and Nature’. (Sapporo International Art Festival 2014: 19th July - 28th September 2014, Sapporo 500-m Underground Walkway Museum) The tree length- 13.2m, wooden box size- 0.9m 12.0m.

 

‘Tree Lying in State’, This work made by tree which was inevitably cut down to prepare building construction site. However, until the tree was logged down, that raced against other trees for the sky to absorb the sun as much as possible by changing shapes of branches and branches belonging to different trees interacted each other. The dynamic system of tree growth, which is called “Light Competition”, could be revived, at least in an imaginary way, through installation art. This work placed a tree in a wooden box and tree is lying in state on view. It intends to awake this tree in underground museum in the public space as a ‘third’ forest.

The term, a secondary forest, inspired this art work to create a ‘third’ forest. A secondary forest is a forest that has re-growth even after trees were damaged through fire or change environment or timber harvesting. Sapporo city has had primary forests since the prehistoric time, yet secondary forests that go through stages of ecological succession have been observed in the city’s ecosystem for several decades. ‘Tree Lying in State’ shows vital force inherent in trees and implies that the trees, which were inevitably cut down, might be reborn as a ‘third forest’.