Together with wood

Exam project at HDK Valand Steneby, Gothenburg University

2020

 The year rings in a tree are unique, like a fingerprint- They are visual memories of a life, preserved in a body. Memories of the good years, and the bad. Memories of rough weather and a competitive environment. Maybe even memories of human presence. 

What does it mean for us humans that we surround ourselves with this material? And what does it mean for nature that we see it as a resource?

This work problematizes humans' intimate relationship to wood as a material and trees as living organisms. It highlights a material on which we've built our civilisation and culture from - and our emotional connection to it.

The work is made of an ash tree that lived for 160 years before it blew over.