Graft 2008 - 2009

Roxy Paine’s towering tree, titled Graft, contorts and twists into the sky, its silvery limbs defying gravity. Imagine Paine, the artist, working with industrial materials to mimic the organic flow of nature. It’s a weird, beautiful, and ambitious project to make something so natural out of something so unnatural. I can imagine him thinking about the ways we shape and control nature, grafting different species together for our own purposes. Look closely at the branches. Some are smooth and sleek, others are gnarled and rough, as if the tree is struggling against its own metallic form. There’s a tension between the artificial and the organic. Paine’s piece reminds me of Eva Hesse’s sculptures; both artists share an interest in organic forms and process. Artists are always in dialogue with each other, riffing on ideas and pushing boundaries. And what a feat for an artist to take solid, cold metal and infuse it with so much movement and feeling. It’s pretty mind-blowing.