art in nature

L’arbre généalogique
[The Family Tree]
1999 - 2000

The family tree is a very powerful universal symbol out of which a rich iconography has developed. Still modern and constantly changing, like the concepts it expresses, it begs to be reinserted into the artistic discourse using new formal approaches.

To commemorate the beginning of the new millennium and to reconnect in her own way with the universal and ageless symbol that is the family tree, Dominique Laquerre asked her family to take part in this project. Children hands, adult hands, senior hands have cut over a thousand leaves in copper, all different, all imperfect and deeply human. These leaves were affixed on trees in the Chesterville woods in the spring of 1999 and taken down in the spring of 2000. During this one-year cycle, the copper leaves were painted by the weather and, in the end, came to resemble the real leaves they were meant to evoke. Every month, the artist took pictures of the changes in this symbolic landscape and made them available on the web, thus allowing people to access this fragile, intimate and private site located over a kilometre away from any road. To see the Family Tree, please visit www.oculiartes.org.

At the end of their stay in the forest, the thousand copper leaves were brought back to be integrated to exhibitions. The whole project took 18 months to develop, a slow process during which stages and material have carried their weight in meaning and contributed to the coherence of the whole work. “The Family Tree” eloquently expresses life cycles; it also offers a subtle, respectful point of view on how to bring a private, intimate universe into the public realm.

For additional information and images, see the “Gallery” sectionVoir autres images et  informations dans la section « galerie ».

Translated by François Couture