Daily Archives: March 6, 2016

Host Analog

 

Image from Buster Simpson.com 

Image from Pinterest 

One of Buster’s most provocative works, which has also come to be one of his most successful, does an excellent job of defining the pursuits of this artist. This work is called Host Analog. It is a sculpture on the grounds of the Oregon State Convention Center made up of a decayed log that the artist brought into the city and cut into several slices. These slices were then arranged in a slightly bowed shape and a hydraulic system was set up in order to keep the log damp enough for other trees to start growing out of it. This type of log is called a nurse log, which occur quite frequently in the Pacific North West forests around where Simpson currently operates. The moisture content of a decaying log, which stimulates the growth of mycorrhizal fungus, is one of the many factors that go in to stimulating the growth of new trees on nurse logs (Oakes 120). Learning this was one of the motivators of my own research into the majesty of nurse logs, the findings of which are recounted under the tab “nurse logs.”

The beauty of this idea, a simple one which will nonetheless will have a great impact, as many people will pass by it over the sculpture’s potential lifetime of several hundred years, is best described in the words of Baile Oaks in the book Sculpting with the Environment: “Host Analog…bring[s] environmental issues to the urban context: natural phenomena which city populations are detached from and often indifferent to yet dependent upon (120).” In addition, the work causes a disruption of the natural rigidity of the city (120). Any time a routine is altered, or in this case, a static array of buildings is broken up by a piece of rotting wood, people will take a moment to break out of their normal thought processes. I believe this to be one of Simpson’s foremost goals as an artist- to get people to consider what narratives are taking place in the world beyond their own lives.

 Besides serving in this role, as a piece of art with a clear message that leads to deeper thoughts on humanity’s debt to the earth upon further contemplation, the piece also has another powerful message in my mind. Through the rapid changes and urbanization that took place following the Industrial Revolution, we as a society have made huge changes on the earth. Art of this particular bent is a way of reconnecting this “gulf between natural and urban ecosystems” (Matilsky 4). Repairing those changes will be a gradual process. This project, like so many others that Buster Simpson had done, emphasize first and foremost that healing and significant change will take place gradually. If I were to pass by this work of art everyday, my hope in this gradual process of renewal would be stirred. As Matilsky has written “the centuries that it will take to establish a forest contrast sharply with the minutes involved in cutting down a tree (96).” Yet here I would be able to witness these new trees growing, and of all places growing in a harsh urban environment.

Deconstructing my Creative Display

Video Showing Creative Display (presentation)

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Video Showing Creative Display (process)

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What is the overall goal of your creative display?

To use a cardboard sculpture which attempts to represent and synthesize some of the ideology of Buster Simpson and my own musings on his work, resulting from my research into the artist. The science component of my report is also represented symbolically and was the impetus behind the form of my display.  

Why did you choose the materials that you did?            

I used recycled cardboard from around Lawrence hall to construct the main tree-outline-forms. The paint brush used, paint, and used wrapper paper tubes were from the Materials Exchange Center for Community Arts (MECCA) in Eugene. This is a statement on the state of recycling in our country. We may recycle, but we rarely think of what happens to those materials after we recycle them. Making art from them is not the most often pursued activity with recycled materials, but it makes the viewer think about this concept via their use in this way.

Where did you get this idea?

This kind of thinking is mirrored in much of Simpson’s work. His projects may not always be the most practical, and they are no slave to the notion that all art must be first visually appealing and then, if at all, functional.

What is the significance of the words written on the display?

The words written around my display read: “Cardboard dies but, trees don’t.” This statement is meant to make the reader question the sentence, as at first it appears to be untrue. Its truth is contingent on further analysis and inquiry. The first half of the sentence is readily explained. In our country, once cardboard is recycled, it “dies”. We don’t think about it again. It is expendable. The second half of the sentence is meant as a segue way into the topic of nurse logs.

What do nurse logs have to do with Buster Simpson?

One of Simpson’s most famous works, Host Analog, consists of a decaying log that is watered in such a way so as to sustain new trees growing on it. In many forests around the world, this takes place naturally, and the decaying logs have been dubbed “nurse logs”. In this way, dead trees don’t really “die” because they are still contributing to the greater life of the forest. They are still essential to the forest-as-an-organism’s-life. Other parts of my display also refer to nurse logs. The four tree outlines subtlety (subtlety was a theme of my overall report and analysis of both Buster Simpson and nurse logs) emerging from the four sheets of cardboard are abstracted from four trees that become nurse logs in forests of the Pacific North West: The Douglas Fir, Western Hemlock, Sitka Spruce, and Cedar. The four rods connecting these outlines refer to the theory that new trees are most likely to survive on logs that have reached decay class 4. Logs on the forest floor are sometimes placed into these decay classes (usually 1-5) depending upon variables such as how much bark is left, how soft the bark is and how much the trunk seems to have changed into more of a mound shape.

What is the significance of the red crosses?

The four red crosses also riff on the idea of nurse logs. Red crosses are commonly associated with medical professions, i.e. nurses. In addition, the mythological birds called phoenixes are associated with the color red and are excellent analogies for nurse logs in my mind. The phoenix rises from its ashy death into new life, new trees rise from nurse logs.  

What is the purpose of the small triangular protrusions on the sides of the trees?

The four triangular protrusions will hold the leaves of sword ferns, which frequently grow near nurse logs in the Pacific North West. In theory, these ferns could cannibalize the whole sculpture, and nature would make direct use of a device that is merely meant to get other people to think about nature. This is also an idea contained in some of Simpson’s projects.

Why are the trees separated by a large amount of space?            

The void created in the center of my display serves two purposes. First, it is a visual allusion to a real occurrence. After approximately one thousand years, nurse logs completely decay, leaving only a space loosely outlined by the roots of the trees to which they gave life. My void does this, but also calls attention to the object placed in its center.

What is the purpose of the object in the middle of the void?

The outline of the crow in the 3D printed block hanging there refers directly to Buster Simpson. In his early career, he would scavenge through dumpsters and construction sites for materials to use in projects. He was a scavenger, like the crow, an animal that often makes appearances in his sculptures concerning recycling. Gradually, Simpson moved from performances of dumpster diving and gathering broken pieces of buildings, to working directly with the city in attempts to remedy some of the issues he was calling attention to. This is why there is only an outline of the crow. Buster Simpson has moved on, but the structure of these ideas of scavenging, nature, and using the materials available to us yet remain.            

Why are there cords attached to the display? 

The display itself will not stand without strings anchoring it to its surroundings. This can be seen as a representation of the delicate balance between humanity and nature. It also forces the display to be site specific, relaying on any chairs, tables, or walls to hold it up. This mirrors the reality that many of Simpson’s projects would not make sense out of context. Finally, the cords projecting out from the display seem to reach out and grab the objects around them, stressing the idea of how urgent our need to understand natural processes is and how we see art’s role in that pursuit.