hew & cry

i have always liked the blunt and heavy works of bruce armstrong which for all their brutishness (not brutality) have a tenderness to them.

relatives of bunjil, the eagle that watches over wurundjeri way, have landed recently at the looped drive-way at the hyatt on russell st
they look like good-humoured bouncers
i love the visible marks of the tools
this work is a bit more brutish and rough, and although it's still an abstraction, it has more animality -
perhaps it's the sharpness of those teeth
ship's prows on the yarra, a collaboration between bruce armstrong and geoffrey bartlett - 1997, constellation

i remember this image from the larousse encyclopaedia of mythology
this monstrous animal head (as the british museum describe it) is an oak ship's figurehead, with its gaping jaws and prominent teeth and eyes [it] was probably meant to be protective and not just ornamental. journeys by ship were hazardous affairs, and it was believed necessary to ward off the evil forces encountered at sea, again according to the bm folk. originally thought to be viking, carbon-dating says it's older, 350-650 A.D. still germanic though
the criss-crossing motif reminds me of the early wooden versions of brancusi's endless column
1918. detail. Oak, 6' 8" x 9 7/8" x 9 5/8" moma

columns in situ in brancusi's studio

there are lots of cemeteries built high on the cliffs above the ocean on the south coast of nsw. many of which have rough and ready grave-sites - at moruya heads there was a grave surrounded by a rustic fence. the tops of the fence (barely discernible in this photo) have been carved in a rudimentary way, but they reminded me of brancusi's notches.
david nash - nine charred steps, following that notched up theme.
1988–89. charred oak, work installed in brussels, belgium.
(thanks to david neale for pointing me in this direction)

nash chats about his work here
in collecting images, i realise that my "wood" aesthetic hankers after the rough and raw, the blunt, the grainy, the gnarly. while i appreciate the finer arts of wood, overpolished and gleaming smooth wood makes me feel a bit queasy ... like overbuffed body-builders with popping muscles and way too much reef oil
i seem to prefer the rawness of this chainsaw-carved redwood trunk located in Laumeier Sculpture Park in St. Louis
i like how the carved contours mimic the shadow lines

given its height and diameter - 34 feet tall and 7 feet in diameter, it is thought to be the largest singular piece wood sculpture in existence, if you're into that kind of thing - it is quite an awesome structure - the photos don't quite convey the proportions

andy goldsworthy's spire in san francisco - a visitor comments It is made up of the trunks of cypress trees which had been felled on the site because they were unhealthy. The structure looks like a branchless tree and is about 100′ tall. The sculpture is surrounded by newly planted cypress trees which are only inches tall at the moment. Eventually they will be as tall as The Spire. At the moment, it stands out like a sore thumb but, as the small trees grow, it will disappear and will eventually rot away

like this totem pole, weathering away in the canadian forests

a hewn hand by henry moore, looking wizened and worn and showing the grains of wood

privet hawk moth pretending to be a piece of hewn wood

goldsworthy again, playing with a environment-ravaged tree, making it look like a beastie with its tongue hanging out
tacita dean's WandermÜde works at the frith street gallery in london (looks like a nice space)

WandermÜde means exhaustion at the prospect of travel – tired of wandering.
In 2005, Dean began work on a series of found postcards featuring trees, which she transformed by painting out all the background detail with white gouache. Inspired by the success of these smaller works, Dean sought out famous and

ancient trees in southeast England. The resulting large-scale works include, Majesty (2006) and Crowhurst II (2006), the oldest complete oak tree in England and a yew estimated at 4000 years old respectively. By isolating their form, the subject becomes even more imposing in its solemnity.

Dean's Kotzsch Trees, 2008 -

now showing at acca until the 2 august - lucky us!

a well weathered winter tree

and more tree play by andy goldsworthy - husks of trees

bryan nash gill, hemlock ink rubbing of a giant tree stumpand in more detail
david nash's wooden boulder, 1978-present - a clever work because the work is not a static sculpture despite its size & substance - it is actively encouraged to move in the environment: Wooden Boulder came from a massive felled oak, from which a dozen or more sculptures were made. I intended to move it down the hill to my studio, but it got stuck half-way in a stream. Initially this seemed a problem, but I decided to leave it there, and it became a sculpture of a rock.

It has moved down the river nine times since then. Sometimes I had to move it on, as when it got jammed under a bridge

the age published an article called the afterlife of trees.

it was about what happens to the "big trees" in melbourne parks when they fall during storms or drought. some go to artists like bruce armstrong to work with (see "dead wood" at the bottom of the article).

anyway, it reminded me of a "this is your life" type episode on sesame street

maybe some bits end up as cool japanese building blocks - tumi ishi - good to feel the texture of wood ...

these blocks remind me of chainsaw-cut "wooden diamonds" by jim shaw i saw in a magazine once ...

and it seems there's a world of re-incarnation, an after life after life... if this discarded chair dragon is anything to go by