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July 23- August 21
Opening Reception July 22, 4-6 PM
Rose Center for the Arts
15th Ave. & Washington Way
Longview, WA
Slide show HERE
The Meaning of Wood Curator
Statement
There are probably as many
paintings, photographs and sculptures of trees as there are trees. But many
trees meet fates not so frequently portrayed: harvested and shipped to other
markets, conserved for biological benefit and recreation, subjected to forest
fires or windstorms and so lost to the use of humans and other species, milled
and turned into functional products, and so forth.
The Meaning of Wood provokes
thinking beyond individual tree portraits into the process and significance of
trees becoming wood. It is a paradox of our language that “woods” means a
living forest and “wood” means the material of products and commerce. Our
language is permeated by tree metaphors – a problem has its “roots,” software
programs have “branches,” railroads have “trunk” lines, we ourselves are “stiff
as boards” or we “slept like logs.”
This is not an inconsequential
topic: global forests are carbon sinks, rich nations pay poor ones to
retain forests for carbon sequestration, and counties in Washington Longview
This invitational exhibit includes
artists from all across western Washington and
northern Oregon
Curating the exhibit has reminded me
how much we treasure both “wood” and “woods.” As a society we attempt to derive
both commercial and spiritual value from forests simultaneously. We can debate
and disagree about what the highest and best uses of the resource are:
experiences of nature? Biodiversity bank? Houses? Furniture? Objects of beauty
and contemplation? Valuable export category? Or pallets and toilet paper tubes?
Our human nature responds to the
rich sensory qualities of wood. Even dead, wood reminds us of life. We will
never want to be without it around us.
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