Connecting Art, People, and Ideas.
San Francisco Instagrammers Say Farewell to #thatSFtree
San Francisco mourns the loss of the iconic cypress tree atop Mt. Davidson: #thatsftree
In cities across the world, certain places become pilgrimage sites for Instagrammers. New York has the Brooklyn Bridge, Los Angeles has Griffith Observatory, and San Francisco had #thatsftree.
The tree, a long-deceased tree atop Mount Davidson, San Francisco’s tallest hill, became a place for the city’s Instagram community to come together. The tree’s pale color and slight lean perfectly framed views of downtown San Francisco or the Sutro Tower atop Twin Peaks. Sadly, the tree came down in unusually strong winds on Sunday night. Many traveled to tree last evening to pay respects.
The significance of trees is something we explored a lot of in our exhibition Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art, and Jewish Thought, so we know that this symbol of the Instagram creative community being blown down is quite a blow. Will someone reclaim the wood and turn it into something new? And who does it belong to?
Lisa Congdon, Connected. Reclaimed wood and gouache.
This piece is featured in the exhibition Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art, and Jewish Thought, ending Sunday!
Luke Bartels is a furniture artisan who works primarily with locally salvaged and sustainably harvested hardwoods, so the challenge to create an art piece out of reclaimed wood wasn’t much of a stretch.
From Luke on this artwork: “Part of the concept of the project is pegging of the price of the bricks to the price of gold…which engages so many of the issues that I’m trying to bring into the piece; market value, commodity fetishism…the charlatanry involved in the trading markets and the green/eco revolution.”
This piece is featured in the exhibition Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art, and Jewish Thought, closing Sept 9.
Image Credits: Luke Bartels, The Wood Standard. California Bay Laurel.
Artist Deborah Lozier collected sticks on an island in the Oslo Fjord that resembled wooden utensils (seen in the image above) and then added the flatware extensions. When making this piece, she asked herself the question, “what if plants had tools?”
This piece is featured in the exhibition Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art, and Jewish Thought, closing Sept 9.
Image Credits: Deborah Lozier, Hand-me-down. Found wood, Norwegian vintage silver and silver plate, sterling silver. Above, the original sticks. Below, the final artwork.
This series of photographs depicts fruit trees native to Israel – peach, almond, apple, pomegranate, persimmon – at the height of their ripening. The artist Tal Shochat carefully cleaned every branch and leaf and then completely stripped the trees of their context, sharply silhouetting them against a black background.
Currently on view in the exhibition Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art, and Jewish Thought.
Image: Tal Shochat, Afarsemon (Persimmon) (from a series along with Afarsek (Peach), Shaked (Almond), Tapuach (Apple), and Rimon (Pomegranate), 2011. C-prints, 16.5 x 17 in. Collection of Gary B. Sokol. Photo courtesy of Andrea Meislin Gallery, New York.
Wish from the Wish Tree. (Taken with Instagram at Contemporary Jewish Museum of San Francisco)
Gale Antokal, Rebirth
Chalk, flour, and wood ash on paper, framed; box with burnt remains of tree roots.
32 x 24 in.
Courtesy of Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco
On view in the exhibition Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art, and Jewish Thought.
Sweet sibling sentiment from Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree, currently installed on our plaza.
Zadok Ben-David installing his piece Blackfield at the Contemporary Jewish Museum. It features thousands of 2-3” etched steel sculptures of about 90 species of plant. Part of the exhibition Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art, and Jewish Thought.
Birds Don’t Play Games by Zadok Ben-David.
Another of his works is featured in the exhibition Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art, and Jewish Thought.
Gabriela Albergaria rebuilds felled trees in galleries using grafting techniques. She made one for our exhibition Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art, and Jewish Thought. This is another.
(via “Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art, and Jewish Thought” At The Contemporary Jewish Museum (PHOTOS))
Branch out a little at the Contemporary Jewish Museum
