Leaf
2021
Pseudotsuga Menziessi (Oregon) & Mild Steel
177cm x 78cm x 24cm
(SOLD - As part of the Sculpture in the Vineyards Art Prize 2022)
From a tree, grown wild and harvested in Canada, that was shipped to this land, and stood as a nondescript oversized beam in a church hall for a few decades, I made Leaf.
Its journey echoes mine, uproot, de-rooted, transported, shaped and smooth down, to reach an essence, that was always there but never predestined.
It echoes all of our culture's journeys too, from the nonchalant wild, to the constraints of prescriptive religiosity, and finally, to the freedom of creative spirituality.
A finely balanced equilibrium between vertical and horizontal form, the artist intends the two half to be movable; at times being disposed in parallel, in opposition or contiguous as a single form - at times framed by the architecture, at times framing it.
The form evokes growth, mineral concretions, biological networks, plant geometry. Both receiving from above and emitting from below, Leaf inspires stillness and peace, a bridge between the sphere above and the sphere below.
The treatment of the wood echoes the passage of time, giving a leathery, fossilised finish to the vegetal shape. Serpentine and iridescent hues meander through the grain, the darkened folds in the form catch the passing light like sea waves, like gum leaves in the midnight moon.
Decades ago, the biologically perfect natural shape of the tree was felled, and its curves fought away and squared off by man's hand, an organic form made plank. Across an ocean away, becoming a support for the roof of a place of worship, but never worshipped itself, never revered, the tree became utility, the forest plantation.
Once that usefulness had waned, only that fraction of a tree, of a temple, of an acre of forest remains. As if distilled into two upwards reaching shapes, Leaf invites us to feel within, to think about the long time, to worship the miraculous web of life, to wonder at what remains after the seeds of time have grown into decay.
