"On display in an exhibition named Funeral for a Tree, the project began when a 65-year-old live oak tree in the artist's yard died from oak wilt, a disease that slowly kills trees. Instead of removing the tree and moving on, Steve Parker chose to listen to it by transforming the oak tree into sound sculptures, allowing the tree to perform its own memorial. At the heart of the exhibition are the wood cookies, which are round slices cut from the oak's trunk."
"The artist carefully turned them into playable records, similar to vinyl records, and each wooden record is engraved with recordings of migratory birdsong. These are sounds from bird species that once rested in the oak during different seasons of its life. When placed on a custom-made wooden turntable, the records spin and play, letting the tree remember the life it once supported."
"The records shown in the exhibition are made directly from the tree itself, and as the wood continues to dry over time, it naturally cracks and changes shape. This affects the sound quality, causing the music to fade, distort, or fill with static. The artist allows this to happen instead of fixing it, so in this way, the sound slowly disappears, just like memories change over time."
A 65-year-old live oak died from oak wilt and was transformed into sound sculptures, musical instruments, and playable wooden records. Round cross-sections of the trunk were turned into engraved records carrying recordings of migratory birdsong once associated with the tree. Custom wooden turntables play these records, enabling the wood to 'perform' memories of the birdlife it supported. As the wood dries and cracks, the recorded sounds warp, fade, and fill with static; the degradation is allowed to continue. Traditional sheng mouth organs, performed by Jipo Yang and mechanically driven by ventilators and CPAP devices, add breath and themes of rebirth.
Read at designboom | architecture & design magazine
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