2017 Best in Sculpture – Siena McKim

The Void

The void created from the mass deforestation of the 18th and 19th century in North America was later filled with industrial factories and housing developments.  The lumber from these trees helped the US develop as a growing country but the lands these forest laid would never be the same again. Clear cutting of all tree species would also destroy the biodiversity that was entangled in the ecosystem including the Ivory Billed Woodpecker. Currently the US is covered mostly with secondary forest that don’t have the same richness in species and strength.

Each copper wire inside of the trees negative space represents the different types of impact the industrial revolution had on the primary forest of America and their ecosystems. We are here living in our world now because of our development and progression during the industrial revolution but a tension has risen as the forest grows quieter. The physical strain of the wires pulling the circle closed creates a complex energy inside of the tree.

The tension can be released by humans openly discussing the problem and then taking action. I am allowing one to make a choice, to either help, by cutting a wire, or not. By making no choice and watching, one is inevitably making a decision to be part of the problem. While cutting all of the wires will not restore the negative space, people will acknowledge what has happened, and still is happening, to the forest of North America. People have the knowledge and now a decision to do something about it.

So, will you be part of the solution?