Paper Tree

by Amanda Arcuri

I work with themes that revolve around man and nature. I enjoy playing with these themes by manipulating the landscape, using the real world as a stage for the photographic performance. For this particular work I knew I wanted work with a tree. On a journey into my shooting lands, I was compelled by the shape of a dead tree and immediately I felt the urge to wrap the tree. While wrapping the tree with toilet paper it became a process of mummifying the tree.

The white tree becomes iconic as it is separated from the rest of the landscape. No longer is it part of where it came from; the tree now takes on a new presence as the dominate object, a white anomaly among the natural trees. There is also the act of wrapping the tree in paper, which transforms into a processed version of the natural tree. I have taken the mischievous act of toilet-papering and turned it into a caring healing act. There is a sense of healing and an attempt to breathe new life into a dead tree by taking it on a journey before its final stage in death. This raises the question; as a society, is nature viewed as a disposable commodity?