Venus de Forest

Venus de Forest is part of my latest series, Tree Museum which showcases tree trunks as statues of the antiquity and takes its inspiration from Joni Mitchell’s words: “They took all the trees, put ‘em in a tree museum and they charged the people a dollar an’ a half just to see ‘em.” Nearly half of Australia's forest cover has been cleared in the last 200 years and continues to be cut down at a rapid rate. This is not sustainable. My work aims to make people stop and think. The form is deliberately reminiscent of antiquities museums where the artifacts are broken, sometimes burned, yet still capable of exuding great power. Are we ready for a world where the only safe place for our nature is in a museum?