“One Impulse from A Vernal Wood”

ONE IMPULSE FROM A VERNAL WOOD consists of nine environmental sculpture installations integrated in Daniel Chester French’s Forest at Chesterwood, a National Trust Historic Site - 2019-2022.

Trees are perhaps our most important partners on the planet. Many cultures have ‘sacred tree’. Trees are noble symbols of strength. We use storm damaged, standing dead or fallen trees. We utilize elements provided by nature and natural forces acting over a given area over many years within this complex community of plants and animals.

One Impulse from a Vernal Wood is a reference to the 19th c. poem The Tables Turned by William Wordsworth.  Wordsworth calls out to his readers,

“let nature be your teacher”.
One impulse from a vernal wood 
May teach you more of man, 
Of moral evil and of good, 
Than all the sages can. 

Our practice is informed by the Gaia hypothesis of James Lovelock and Lynn Margulius. “Planet earth is a living creature, “a biological super- organism-a planetary body-that adjusts and regulates itself.” Also, it is inspired by the scientific work of botanist Forester Peter Wollenbee and Suzanne Simard, who determined trees communicate underground through a complex network of root systems and fungal matter.

Perhaps in a place where science meets closely with the arts, our works loosely reference their breakthroughs in scientific inquiry.

MOTHER TREE Is a majestic full growth eastern white pine tree overlooking and under the ground nurturing a broad sweeping community of younger trees that radiate outward from her long time fixed location found deeply in the forest.  
Eastern white pine, steel approx. 90’ tall. Installation 10’ x 22’ x 6’

SIBLINGS Consists of two large remaining hemlock stumps having had most of their upper sections blown off in a storm. Using these broken elements we constructed two linear sculpture configurations suggesting  two siblings possibly offspring from their mother tree playfully cascading down  the hillside over rocks and through ferns on the forest floor. Each tree piece begins with the remaining section of their rooted stump as a point of departure, continues with a mid-section of reconfigured forms rejoined and terminating  with their individual tree tops.
Two full growth hemlocks, steel connectors. Approx. 70’ x 8’ x 2’ each

DREAMING Gives an extended life to a fallen tree utilizing the remains of a full-growth hemlock destroyed in a storm. The sculptural configuration animates the reconfigured tree elements into a dream like three dimensionally drawn form. When a tree falls the greater amounts of sunlight induce a burst of new undergrowth and new trees on the forest floor.  Our storm damaged hemlock and sculptural intervention are animated throughout the day with dabbled light as the sun moves across the sky. Dreaming alludes to the inter-connectedness , co-existence  and  cooperative systems always present in the forest.
Hemlock, co-operating ash tree 80’ tall, black-smoothed steel connectors, installation approx. 50‘ x 12’ x 16’

LINK A re-configured fabricated systematic structure extending the life of this eastern white pine tree beyond its natural destruction from a violent storm.
Eastern white pine, steel connectors. Installation 3’ x 10’ x 60’

WISDOM A very old, standing dead tree in advanced stages of decay. Surprisingly, a tree in this condition continues to provide vital information and resources for younger trees within the forest community. Our installation includes abstract symbols that loosely reference the origin of language and fundamental basis for communication.
Eastern white pine, ceramics, steel. Installation 3’ x 3’ x 25’

SINGING TREE A standing dead hemlock tree with top blown off in a storm reconfigured in a way suggesting an exuberant tree, singing - out to surrounding trees and plants throughout the forest and the world at large. 
Hemlock, steel connectors. Installation approx.. 6’ x 10’ x 8’

VEER  Using fallen sections of adjacent hemlock trees we fabricate a web of inter locking screens that bob and weave back and forth between a number of remaining standing hemlock trees .   
Hemlock trees, steel connectors. Installation 5’ x 50’ x 2”

ROUSE A storm damaged standing dead hemlock reconfigured and organized as a way to reflect tree’s tendencies to send out warning signals to surrounding trees when sensing dangers such as the invasion of harmful insects.
Hemlock, steel connectors. Installation 16’ x 10’ x 2”

Photographs by Cary Wolinsky