I did a series of posts back a year or so related to tree art – as I find these explorations terribly interesting to provoke understanding or look at different ways on perhaps one of the ubiquitous and overlooked workers in our urban landscapes. Here’s a selection of some newer additions to this eco-artform.
:: Mosstika by Edina Todiki – image via Inhabitat
:: Under the Tree of Life (artist unknown) – image via WAN
:: What is a tree? (artist unknown) – image via People and Place
The last one I had to dig a little to get into. At first I thought it was one of those technophilic explanatory pieces that simulated the ecosystem services from a tree in an abstracted mechanistic form. A bit more digging expanded the idea, and it’s a pretty cool one, worth a bit of dialogue. Via Treehugger, the ‘Idea of a Tree’ from Katharina Mischer and Thomas Traxler for a “…a machine that “starts producing when the sun rises and stops when the sun settles down. After sunset, the finished object can be ‘harvested’.”
:: image via Treehugger
This minimalist contraption deserves a full explanation – as it is quite fascinating in idea and simplicity. ” tree is a product of its specific time and place. It reacts and develops according to its surrounding and constantly records various environmental impacts in its growth process. Each single tree tells its own story of development. The goal of ‘the idea of a tree’- project was to bring the recording qualities of a tree and its dependence on natural cycles into products. It slowly grows the object, by pulling threads through a colouring device, a glue basin and finally winding them around a mould. The length/height of the resulting object depends on the sun/hours of the day. The thickness of the layer and the colour is depending on the amount of sun-energy. (more sun = thicker layer and paler colour; less sun=thinner layer and darker colour).”
:: images via Treehugger
Some info on the outcomes: “The ‘bench tioat’ is one outcome of the ‘the idea of a tree’ project, which uses solar energy to translate the luminosity of the sun into one object a day. The bench is a souvenir of its day and place of creation. The thickness of the layer and its colour intesity refer directly to the sun. Dark and thin parts result from little sun, bright and thick areas result from lots of sun.”
:: images via Treehugger