Stacked Deck
2002
Collection of Artist.
An invitation to participate in the Waiheke Island Gallery Christmas Exhibition required a deckchair be decorated. The deckchair was made from an imported hardwood.
My response was to refer to the loss of rainforest hardwoods. I replaced the white canvas with a series of pine boards, rubber-stamped with a list of our lost indigenous forests: Kauri, Rimu, Totora, Tanikaha, Kahikatea, Rewarewa, Tawa, Manuka, Matai and Whau. Using steel engineering stamps, I embossed into the pine planks a quote from Forests by Robert Pogue Harrison:
"From the family tree, to the tree of knowledge, from the tree of life, to the tree of memory, forests have provided an indispensable resource of symbolization in the cultural evolution of humankind."
Dimensions: Height 1400mm x Width 550mm x Depth 80mm.
Materials: Non sustainable hardwood frame with suspended panels of pine, string, embossed and rubber-stamped text.