"Trees are earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven." (Rabindranath Tagore)
The foundation myths of every civilization evoke the cosmic tree. Their roots suggest our earthly origins whereas the trunk represents the slow ascension to the heavens and its canopy of leaves.
In a society where the environment is no longer a fundamental element of human consciousness, where vanity and arrogance claim dominion over nature, the tree can be seen as an emblem of a distressed planet.
The trees presented here attempt to counter this malaise by recalling a time when man lived in harmony with the earth: a time when, in his eagerness to converse with her, he solicited the aid of trees whose nature it is to bring together heaven and earth. Each tree was endowed with magical powers and occult knowledge and their names became the letters of a sacred alphabet. The complicity between man and tree was to provide a remarkable means for the transmission of Knowledge between initiates and between generations: groves became books of learning, a forest no less than a library.
The works presented here evoke the dying language of the trees that men no longer heed: the murmuring of the sap as it rises to "the listening heaven" - the symbolic elevation of the consciousness of Man...
Ashley |
