Mending Trees

Installation at the Conard Environmental Research Center

Iowa

2021

After the derecho storm hit Iowa August 2020, many trees remain caught in the violent gesture of rupture. Branches are split open with intricate wood grain on display while roots hang exposed next to the empty hole in the ground where they once sat. Throughout April, 2021, I brought red yarn, nails, and a hammer along with me and traced where the trunks and branches used to be attached. After each installation, I took everything down and left. The Collection of Tree Mending documents these moments of rupture and repair. The same thread and stitch that binds the book runs across the print pages, sewing both the prints and the book together. I am using this careful and repetitive motion of stitching and carving to respect the natural world in its most dynamic and vulnerable moments.