“Woolroot (driftwood, cooper, wool and oil pastel), by Leslie Wilcox, in her show “Enrootables,’’ at Boston Sculptors Gallery, April 3-May 5.
The gallery says:
“Inspired by evidence of trees’ underground social network known as the
‘wood wide web,’ Wilcox shrouds sea-distressed deadwood
with twisted metal screening to explore earthbound similarities and shared connections between
human forms and life-sustaining, mutually communicative arboreal forests.
Supplanting human bones with driftwood tree roots, Wilcox creates organic skeletal forms tightly
encased in copper and bronze screens, referencing bark or sapwood or skin. ‘Enrootables’ cultivates a
glimpse beneath the forest floor to reveal shared alliances through communication and care among
multiple species. And while mimicking our own modern behavior, themes of cooperation for mutual
benefit are discovered, including human dependence on trees’ filtration of carbon dioxide. Evidence of
trees living among their parents, siblings and offspring growing twice as tall and living twice as long
fosters this transfer of knowledge and expertise to future generations, thus safeguarding the existence
of thriving forest biospheres. Can what we learn from these strategies ensure the same for the future of
humankind? (Companion reading: The Hidden Life of Trees, by Peter Wohlleben).’’
