Testbed for Trees
Testbed for Trees, was a three-stage exhibition/ event/ performance at the Union Gallery Project Room, Kingston, Ontario, which lay bare the sculptural and documentary processes of Carbon Tree Print.
The images that you see here were made by photographing the burning of a match tree that had been purpose built in the Union Gallery Project Room. The destruction of any of the trees, which each take hundreds of hours to make, is not done lightly. It is a gamble that aims, through destruction to create new and more versatile artworks.
Paradoxically, the destruction of some of the trees brings both the flammable nature of the materials, the cost of production (in terms of labour) and the humour of the whole project to the fore. From discussions with gallery visitors and those who attended The Burning of the Tree event, the destructive act also seems to incite a number of emotional and conceptual readings of the sculptures and the project as a whole.
Fire Tree. The Kingston Match Tree Burning as part of Lawrence Molloy's Testbed for Trees.
Fire Tree. The Kingston Match Tree Burning as part of Lawrence Molloy's Testbed for Trees.
Fire Tree. Montage of The Kingston Match Tree Burning as part of Lawrence Molloy's Testbed for Trees.
Fire Tree. The Kingston Match Tree Burning as part of Lawrence Molloy's Testbed for Trees.
Stage 1: 23rd March - 10th April 2010
Union Gallery Project Room, Kingston, Ontario.
I presented documentary objects, in a range of artistic media, in an attempt to make the audience ask the following questions: What in the exhibition is art, and what is document? Within these object an endurance performance took place between the 23rd March and 10th April, where , stopping only for toilet breaks and to answer visitors’ questions, I worked tirelessly to make a match trees in record time. Gallery visitors were asked to take 1 photograph of me working as they left the project room these images were used to make the montage of the building process (aside).
Stage 2: 10th April 2010 7pm
NGB Studios Kingston, Ontario
Up until this time the documentation of the trees burning had been done with the help of artist and videographer Dave Lynch on a closed film set. Testbed for Trees however did not only placed the making element in a gallery setting, by making the set open and inviting the audience to view the acts of destruction and documentation these acts became performance and acts of artistic creation in their own right.
Stage 3: 14-24th April 2010
Union Gallery Project Room, Kingston, Ontario.
Between the 11th and the 13th I took the footage and remnants from the Burning of the Tree event, and exhibition so far, and used them to make new artworks and exhibits for the Project Room. With the help of Troy Leaman from Modern Fuel ARC and photographer and printer Bill Weedmark, photographic prints and montages of the tree’s creation and destruction as well as and a multi-screen video instillation were produced. Original artworks and documents that were in the exhibition prior to the event (including videos and prints) were swapped for these, the charcoal remains of the tree as well as the tree building kits and tools.
Photographic prints of single Dancing Trees are available at 33 x 48cm (limited to 5 editions each) 20 x 30cm (limited to 5 editions each). Light boxes of single trees are 40 x 60cm (limited to 3 editions each)
Photographic prints of Five Dancing Trees are available at 76 x 45cm (limited to 5 editions) 51 x 30cm (limited to 3 editions). Light boxes of Five Dancing Trees are 110 x 60cm (limited to 3 editions)
Barry Street Match Tree Match sculpture that had been made for the exhibition
Instillation Shot of the Union Gallery, Kingston, Ontario
Tool Kit Close Up
Barry Street Match Tree Match sculpture that had been made for the exhibition
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Written Content and Photographs © Lawrence Molloy 2010