Commission Meadow Arts

Witness Tree
Selective Laser Sintering, nylon prime part
Meadow Arts commission, 2009
‘Witness Tree’ was made using the latest body scanning technology and 3D imaging software. The figures forming the trunk are exact images of the three artists.

In spite of its highly technological, digitized origin, the work is a direct response to the ancient trees found in the grounds of Croft Castle. The gnarled and fissured texture of the trees’ bark and the elaborate forms of their trunks and branches prompt thoughts of mythical metamorphoses.

Like an unfamiliar tree species brought back from distant lands by avid botanists, the strange new specimen is being ‘grown’ in the controlled and protected environment of a very small glass house (akin to the Victorian Wardian Case) which is itself placed within the sheltered surroundings of Croft’s walled garden.

Rooted and Established
Selective Laser Sintering, nylon prime part
Meadow Arts commission, 2009
The three miniature figures that compose ‘Rooted and Established’ stand gracefully on the shelves of the slender Gothick mirrors of the Ante-room, framed by their columns and canopies.

Despite their decorative air of porcelain ornaments, the figurines - like ‘Witness Tree’ in the walled garden - were made using the latest body scanning technology and 3D imaging software. They are the exact images of the three artists.

As if contemplating their own transformation into small trees, they are twisting to glimpse their reflection in the tarnished antique mirrors. Narcissus-like they are rooted in one place, eternally self-regarding and absorbed by their own reflection.

To Suspend the Breath
Glass tubing, red neon, 2008
Courtesy of the artists/International 3
The red neon tubing of To Suspend the Breath pulsates in the corner of the stable block, requiring our attention like an outdated street sign.

Delineating the structure of an inverted pair of lungs, the double neon tubing throbs between inward and outward breaths.

It also clearly alludes to a tree oscillating between its bare branch and full-leaf form.