ALPER AYDIN | FATA MORGANA | 20 JUNE - 20 AUGUST 2023
Sylva
2023
Tree root, sapling, soil
(a) 135 x 240 x 250 cm
(b) 195 x 150 x 200 cm
(c) 71 x 150 x 118 cm
(d) 124 x 158 x 172 cm
One of the materials that reveal the global warming and ecological disasters it causes are the roots of trees washed ashore by the floods. The artist meticulously collects these roots from the beach—in different sizes, types, and shapes. Following bonsai techniques, he creates cavities within these roots deployed of their sap, fills those with soil, and plants saplings. The crux is that the pot of the planted saplings is not the ground but these roots. This intervention allows a dying tree to regain its function and continue its life organically. Thus, the dead tree roots are granted a second chance to live. Proving how ambiguous become the borders of notions of death, coming to an end, and obsolesce in nature, the work is a living sculpture.