Conversations about Trees
Diploma in Art Education, Mentors: Prof. Stella Geppert, Charlotte Silbermann, Sarah Kaiser
I understand trees as actors in our environment, possessing a body and a face. Their surface is the bark, the skin, and the point of contact at eye level. Their texture is partly due to their predisposition, but also an inscription of their individual development. They tell their story directly through their growth form and their intergrowths. In the latex mold, all these subtleties and overlapping layers of time are captured. Lichens, mosses, and the outermost layer of bark, which is also the oldest, are removed and preserved in the negative mold.
In the exhibition context, the singularity of the objects points to a loss, a void that can be filled by viewers (bodies) but not answered. The absence of the human (body) raises the question of whether and how a connection with nature arises. The tree skins ambivalently defy the idea of use value in the relationship between humans and trees.