Tree is progressing ever so slowly. I often forget the amount of effort needed in some of my detailed work until I am in the throes of it, cuts, sore muscles, getting high on fumes and cursing.
This piece is challenging my patience everyday. But in an interesting sort of way. A majority of the time, Tree, in my mind is likened to elephant poaching. We are on the verge of losing this wonderful beast. I have said it in the past that they will come after our elephants and when those are gone, after our rhinos and when those are gone, our lions, zebras, antelope; until we will have nothing left. In parts of the world, trees are poached (illegal logging) – in DRC, in California (USA), all over the world, there is not a continent that does not face this.
We are a species of destruction. We are most aware of our mortality and in this, we are least aware of our propensity for destruction. As if, we are angry that we are mortal and everything thus most also meet its premature death.
It is not unfathomable to imagine a time when we will “build” a structure called “Tree” to remind our children of something that once existed called “tree.” And perhaps we will put this “tree” in museums and galleries.
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Tree, is an installation about the distance between life and loss. Using the symbol of a tree, the installation plays on an experience of life and death and the human role in bringing about both extremes. The piece’s fragility can be witnessed as the exhibition progresses. The installation projects a future where man can only remember something that once existed called “tree.”
Tree is part of Fore•cast, a collaborative exhibition by Gor Soudan, Jackie Karuti and Wambui Kamiru that explores how past, present and future action are linked in creating a shared human experience, through looking at a time when things “were”. It opens for one week, at Goethe in Nairobi.
Exhibition Opening
Wednesday, 15th July 2015, 7.00 pm
Exhibition
Thursday, 16th July to Wednesday, 22nd July 2015, 1.00 – 6.00 pm
Wambui Wamae Kamiru 