CURATORIAL STATEMENT:
ARBOR VITAE features sculptural works by Los Angeles based artist Pontus Willfors exploring tensions between idealized natural/organic forms and man-made/industrial constructions and materials. The most commanding sculpture in the gallery, Organic Form , takes shape as the likeness of an avocado tree and has been constructed from the remains of numerous trees salvaged from a grove wiped out by fire. While the new formmay seem natural or organic at first glance, themarks of the artist and connective hardware are exposed, acknowledging the artifice of construction. In Dismembered we encounter further remains salvaged from the same grove of trees; but rather than seeking to restore these deconstructed branches to a natural likeness, this collection of branches and joints is instead conformed to a geometric grid— the complex natural forms constrained to the perfect symmetrical form of a square or rectangular prism. Reclaimed Organic Form and Aluminum Bar #2 both reverse this process. In these works, the artist begins with lumber or aluminum that has been already machined in to clean rectangular shapes for the purposes of commercial/industrial utility. Willfors then acts on these manufactured geometric shapes to recover or extract complicated organic shapes. Throughout, the artist’s frequent use of salvage materials evokes themes of death and rebirth, as the image of a tree—a symbol of vitality, beauty, and life—is drawn out from discarded material and products of industrial utility. This duality points with hopeful optimism to a process of transformation that builds on the layered history of each piece to restore a sense of wonder at the complex forms of life.
Jeff Rau, curator
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker