Dimensions: unconfirmed: 800 x 600 x 800 mm
Copyright: © Peter Fischli and the estate of David Weiss, courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery, New York | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: This is Peter Fischli's *Untitled (Small Root)*. It looks like a charred chunk of wood, almost fossilized, sitting on this stark white pedestal. What symbols do you find in its stark presentation? Curator: The black root against the white cube evokes a potent contrast: nature versus culture. The charred texture may symbolize destruction, but also preservation, echoing ancient rituals around fire and transformation. Do you see how it recontextualizes natural objects within a gallery setting, imbuing them with new meaning? Editor: Yes, it's like a relic, isn’t it? Presenting the root as an artifact. Curator: Precisely! It compels us to consider the shifting value and symbolic weight we assign to the natural world. Editor: I never thought of it that way. It seems so simple at first glance, but it’s really complex.
Comments
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/fischli-weiss-untitled-small-root-t12354
Join the conversation
Join millions of artists and users on Artera today and experience the ultimate creative platform.
Untitled (Small Root) is a direct cast in actual size of a portion of a tree root in synthetic black rubber. It represents a thick chunk of wood, with flaking bark, bumps and notches on the outer surface, and smoother, flatter sides where the wood appears to have been sawn from a tree. The sculpture was made by creating a silicon mould from the root of a felled tree, which was then cast in black polyurethane. To stabilise the sculpture, its core consists of foam glass, a material that is resistant to shrinkage and to chemical reactions. The work is part of a series of sculptures cast in synthetic black rubber which Peter Fischli and David Weiss started to make in 1986. In 1987 the artists made their first cast rubber sculpture of another root, titled Wurzel (Root) (edition of six, various collections). Produced on the occasion of their large retrospective at Tate Modern in London, Untitled (Small Root) is the smaller one of two sculptures of tree roots cast in 2005. The larger sculpture, Untitled (Big Root), was cast from a more frayed and jagged portion of root than Untitled (Small Root).
CollectMore like this
