Dimensions: image: 152 x 203 mm support: 153 x 203 mm frame: 265 x 312 x 36 mm
Copyright: © David Shrigley | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: This is David Shrigley's "Fallen Tree" from the Tate Collections. It's a photo, quite small, and at first glance, seems almost mundane. But then, those painted eyes! What do you see in this piece? Curator: The eyes transform the tree. Suddenly, it is not just wood and decay, but a being, an almost comic character. The addition of the eyes invites empathy. Consider the tree, once a symbol of strength and longevity, now fallen. Does the artist intend for us to reflect on mortality? Editor: That's interesting; I hadn't considered the tree's past. Curator: Shrigley prompts us to reconsider the familiar, finding significance and perhaps a touch of melancholy where we least expect it. It’s a commentary on our relationship with the natural world, no? Editor: Yes, definitely food for thought. Thanks!
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tate about 2 months ago
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/shrigley-fallen-tree-p79241
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tate about 2 months ago
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Fallen Tree is a colour photograph showing the trunk or large branch of a tree lying over a tarmac surface in a park. Crudely painted on one side of the trunk, a pair of eyes stares blankly towards the viewer. The tree trunk is propped above ground level by the volume of its upper branches and twigs that crashed to the pathway during its fall. A heap of bronze-coloured leaves blown into the smashed branches and tangled twigs suggest that the tree fell some time ago; the remnants of security tape hanging from the furthermost twigs, just visible on the extreme right side of the image would appear to confirm that the tree was cordoned off by park workers some time before Shrigley’s photograph was taken. A light covering of snow on the landscape behind the tree and a few patches melting on the path underneath the trunk indicate a change in season from autumn to (early) winter. The eyes on the trunk are depicted with the extreme simplicity of a child’s drawing – the circles of white paint with black dots for pupils superficially resemble the patches of snow under the trunk, so that they are not immediately apparent.
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