Participating artists:
Gerbrand Burger (NL) – Tom Claassen (NL) – Gesine Grundmann (DE) – Roman Gysin (CH) – Abul Hisham (IN) – Milda Lembertaitė (LT/UK) – Bart Lunenburg (NL) – Henrique Oliveira (BR) – Maria Roosen (NL) – Tatiana Wolska (PL)
With the great emphasis on materiality that has been evident in contemporary art for over a decade, classic materials such as clay, textiles and, to a lesser extent, stone are being re-examined by the current generation of artists. Clay and textiles have become an indispensable part of the art practices of the latest cohort. Without a doubt, the oldest construction material, wood, is sure to follow. Lustwarande is a pioneer in the exploration of this development.
Where has this growing interest in the use of classic materials in contemporary art come from? From a philosophical perspective, more specifically, as viewed in the context of thinkers such as Bruno Latour, a clear explanation can be formulated. Latour breaks with the conceptual frameworks of the Enlightenment and Modernity, in which humans are central, and the world is viewed, studied, analysed, explained by humans. According to Latour there is no objective world but only a constructed reality, in which humans and the planet are not two separate entities but units that are interconnected in complex relationships and systems. Human actions have an influence on the condition of the Earth and, conversely, the changing planet leaves its mark on the essence of humankind.
With the awareness of such insights, increasing numbers of researchers, including artists, are working from various angles to redefine the concept of nature, of which both humans and technology are part. As a result, the opposition of culture versus nature no longer applies. This notion has led to the development of new forms of knowledge, from which a new worldview is gradually emerging. Collaboration between the natural sciences and the humanities, including the arts, is central in this development.
It is the quality of art as a sensitive, aesthetic, constructive and deconstructive, narrative and performative form of knowledge that can teach us how to deal with these new insights. Art made from wood occupies a special position in this learning process. Wood as a material that is worked on by the artist connects the body directly to some of the most common and interesting entities on Earth: trees. It is trees that convert CO2 into O2, which we need to live. In a sense, sculptures in wood revitalise the relationship between humans and what surrounds us, an awareness that has largely been lost as a result of technological processes, growing urbanisation and the increasing decline of collective knowledge.
Wood, the core of trees, a combination of carbon dioxide, sunlight and minerals, is one of the most universal materials in art. Not only is wood the oldest material, but it has also been the most widely used material in art throughout the centuries.
Half a million years ago, our ancestors in Africa were already building with wood, as was reported September 2023 in the journal Nature. Throughout human history, wood has been a primary material, used for the production of tools, utensils and furniture, and for the expression of devotion, in nearly every culture. The oldest wooden sculpture known sofar, the Shigir Idol, a totem almost three metres in height, is 11,000 years old, twice as old as Stonehenge and the pyramids in Egypt. In Greek mythology, the tree was the symbol of fertility, but also the bringer of fire, the divine spark. Rubbing on wood created the spark that ignited sacrificial fires. The power of the gods resided within the tree.
Wood has played a crucial role at important moments in human development: from hunter-gatherer to farmer, the discovery of the printing press and the success of the Industrial Revolution, as stated in an infectious and imaginative way by Roland Ennos in his book The Wood Age (2021).
Wood remained the predominant material in sculpture until it was replaced by marble and bronze in the 16th century. A reintroduction took place in the early 20th century, with Primitivism, Cubism and Constructivism. However, wood as a material never regained its former status. Only a small group of artists belonging to the 20th-century sculptural canon continued to use wood, such as Hans Arp & Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Constantin Brâncuși, Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Ossip Zadkine, Juana Muller, Isamu Noguchi, Louise Bourgeois, Maren Hassinger, Louise Nevelson, Carl Andre, Mario Merz, Giuseppe Penone, Donald Judd, Tony Cragg, Richard Deacon, Richard Long, David Nash, Martin Puryear, Georg Baselitz, Stephan Balkenhol, Tadashi Kawamata and Jimmie Durham.
There is no doubt that wood still plays a prominent role in design and architecture, but what about the use of wood in contemporary sculpture? The silent rise of artists who use wood in their practice, whether exclusively or not, is not yet so apparent, but still it cannot be ignored. In addition to Alma Allen, Huma Bhabha, Claudia Comte, Thomas Houseago and Oscar Tuazon, to name just a few, who have continued the use of wood into the 21st century, there is a new generation of artists who are doing so. Mid-career artists who work in wood are also gradually coming back to the fore and even a giant like Paul McCarthy has incorporated traditional woodworking in monumental form into his unruly art practice.
As well as traditional methods, their practices explore new, computer-controlled modes of woodworking, installations that further examine the tradition of minimal art, relationships with architecture and, from the perspective of sustainability, the recycling of wood. We can certainly say that wood is making a comeback.
Although wooden sculptures have never been absent in previous editions of Lustwarande, with works by for instance Kevin van Braak, Anya Gallaccio, Henrik Håkansson, Terence Koh and Ojārs Pētersons, the fourteenth edition focuses exclusively on the use of wood in contemporary sculpture. It does so in the midst of the trees, emphasising the essence of what De Oude Warande is: arbos, Latin for trees.