Overgrown (2006)
This is a three part piece and is a continuation of the Overgrown project from a few years ago. Overgrown Chairs (group) is comprised of black and white laser prints and colour RH4 prints. The black and white images were taken from a single vantage point, that of an onlooker. The colour images were taken from multiple points of view, that of hypothetical sitters in each of the four chairs. The images are approx the same scale as the actual chairs (which are across from it and outside.) The work was in part assembled in the gallery and pinned to the wall. It measures approximately 16′ wide x 10′ tall.
The work adjacent to that (Overgrown: Chair with Shadow & Roots) is made up of an actual chair, a series of direct plaster on asphalt/dirt/bark relief castings and a wall painting depicting a shadow made from a tree growing through a chair (a similar image appeared in the postcard.) The plaster castings were made on an area of asphalt that had been displaced or “overgrown” by tree growth. The chair sits on plaster castings made around the actual tree.
The third part and in most instances the first part you would see appeared directly outside the gallery. Overgrown: Chair #2 consisted of another actual chair that had been taken apart and re-assembled to appear as if it had sat there long enough for a tree to grow through it. On August 26, 2006 it appeared in the background of an unrelated photograph in the Globe & Mail newspaper.
A found chair was taken apart and altered so that it could be rebuilt around a tree and hypothetically appear that it had sat undisturbed long enough for a tree to grow through it. This project emphasis the slowness of how things evolve over time in relation to the speed of urban development in Toronto over the last decade.
Exhibition history:
Overgrown (solo exhibition), MADE, Toronto, ON, 2007
Everyday Living and Other Helpful Hints, LOOP, Toronto, ON, 2006
Junction Arts Festival (juried), Storefront Installation, Toronto, ON, 2004