Building a Tree 2 Inches At a Time

How many people does it take to build a replica of a tree out of two inch pieces of wood, glued together, one piece at a time? Apparently hundreds of trained and untrained volunteers over the course of many months.

John Grade, the artist, was one of several chosen back in 2015 for the reopening of the Smithsonian’s Renwick Museum. It was part of a show called Wonder that I got to see at the museum. The newly renovated museum reopened in the Winter, but that didn't keep lines from forming that almost stretched to the White House several blocks away in Washington D.C.

Grade’s artwork, called Middle Fork, filled a large room in the gallery. Each piece of the tree was suspended in place by wires from the ceiling.

I was amazed at the detail and beauty of the exhibit. Grade made a plaster cast of the original 40 foot tall old growth cedar tree and then worked with volunteers to individually glue each two inch piece of reclaimed cedar into the plaster cast, recreating all of the complexity of the tree and its branches.