OLAF BREUNING

FOREST

Currently, sitting in the forest, I realize that I always had a soft spot for the place where many trees grow at one location. 2002, for the first time, I was invited by Adam Sutherland from Grizadele Art in Cumbria, England. He told me that nature at the Lake District is breathtaking, and I should consider including it in my new project. So I did. My idea was to create an unusual sight in a forest. An unexpected configuration of sticks stuck in the trees like a work of a maniac. My motivation was to make a sculpture and take a photograph of it once done. The Photograph was considered as the end product.

I took two assistants with me, Talia and Mimi. For days, we would do nothing but attach tree branches with strings to larger trees. As it often does in England, it was raining nonstop. Once enough branches, I took a photo and looked at it on my laptop. I tried to see something, some form or figure. After a while, all of a sudden I saw a cat! I painted the branches white in Photoshop and was very happy with the idea. The next day, we went to the forest for the last time, painted the chosen branches with white chalk, and shot the photo. I am curious if there are remains in those woods after 20 years passed.

The second forest attempt was in Denmark. A Foundation (i will figure out the details soon)  invited me to produce a work for a show they planned. A forest surrounded the guesthouse. That was enough reason for me to consider another work in the green. I wanted to repeat the same tactic I used in England nearly a decade ago. This time I decided to make a complaining forest. What if nature would have a way to communicate with us? Would the forest complain?

The third Photograph is titled Virtual Reality Is Coming. Right about 2016, virtual imagery became popular. Virtual reality has been around since the ’90s, but now people can enjoy it with a cardboard mask and their iPhone without spending a lot of money on expensive equipment. I thought it was funny; 20 years after Jaron Lanier would give us a vision into the future of VR, we ended up with cheap cardboard goggles strung around the head with a rubber band. Well, of course, this was only a trend for a short period. But as I often do, I took advantage of a timely issue. The relationship between humans and technology is always something I am interested in discussing as a topic.

Cat, 2002, C-Print, 5 Ed. + 2 AP: 122 x 155 cm (48 x 61 in.), 10 Ed. + 2 AP: 80 x 100 cm (32 x 39 in.)

Installing “Cat” at the Lake District in Cumbria, nothwest England.

Complaining Forest, 2010, C-Print, 6 Ed. + 2 AP: 132 x 190 cm (52 x 74 6 in.)

Installing “Complaining Forest” 

Virtual Reality Is Coming, 2016, C-Print, 6 Ed. + 2 AP: 122 x 155 cm (48 x 61 in.)

Installing “Virtual Reality Is Coming, Kerhonkson, Upstate New York