Hello great great great . . . grand mother!

I found this leave in Bali. I don't know its name or where it comes from, but I have a feeling we are related and share the same great great great … (how many?) … grand mother.

Exotic Botany

Teach Me Tiger

We love wild things and everything wild, but do we really dare to embrace it? And do we want it? Or should it rather be stuffed behind glass or securely (dis)placed in zoos? It seems like our own wildness is so suppressed these days, that it is forced to express itself in other ways, e.g. today's fashion dictates "wild cats" in fabric print, shoes, clothes etc.
Here is a selection from my wardrobe set free for a while in the Singaporean jungle:

 

 

 

 

However, I must admit, I was really pleased, when I recently became aware that there is some kind of wildness left in the nearby, where I currently live. The Malayan tiger and other magnificent animals have been captured by one of Rimba's photo traps in Kenyir Wildlife Corridor, Terengganu, West Malaysia. - "Dear Tiger. Did you say "cheese"?" I hope not, but rather: "Meeeeeeeeeaaat".

Can we please have some more tigers and wild animals in the forests (and some more forests to accommodate them)? Then we don't have to constantly compensate with various superimposed, wildly tame disguises!

"In wildness is the preservation of the world" (from Henry David Thoreau's: "Walking".

Photos: top: from Bukit Timah Nature Reserve's Visitor Centre, bottom: Rimba.

Dr. Wild Wood Woman, I presume?

When you come from the cold temperate Northern Europe and relocate to such a different environment like tropical Southeast Asia, you can either continue communicating in your usual manner, now with a tropical twist, or you can choose to keep quiet for a period, while you acquire new skills and languages. I chose the latter - or rather it chose me.
Now after a year, I am still a beginner in tropical flora and fauna as well as in Chinese and tai chi. The Chinese character for "forest" might as well mean "sewing machine", in tai chi I 
have learned up to "the snake" in the 24-form, and I am now able to recognize and name 5 tropical plants, all trees.
But nevertheless I can't keep quiet any longer, so please accept my apologies for any future tropical nonsense.

Rain Forest Rain Forest Rain ...

The Gregorians call it a New Year.

I call it just another great day in the office.

By the way: my office has relocated to the tropics.

Much more to come.

Tip for Lonely Ladies in the Forest

This blog post has moved to my new Who Cares Art Blog 👉🏼

Squeeze!

I have just returned from a ManyMini Residency at Koh-i-noor, Copenhagen where I tryed to squeeze House of WildWoodWoman into the project space and make myself a(t) home. I thought January was a good opportunity for an outsider to move inside in the warmth for a short while.
However, as the tent was too tall for the project space, I had to tilt the birch pole in order to fit in. That's how nature works anyway - one must adapt to the environment. The question is: how much?
One can also adapt the environment to oneself: I took photos of trees from the local area around Koh-i-noor and stuck them on the walls around the tent - just to get a homey, woody feeling right there in the middle of town.

Autumn Art Fair

 

 

 

 

I have just returned from the annual Autumn Art Fair in the forests. I particularly enjoyed these aspen leaves, which remind me of some of Helen Frankenthaler and Mark Rothko's works. Or perhaps it is the other way round? Nature rocks! Year after year. The entrance is free and so are these works.
PS. Don't ask the name of the artist!
PSPS: More inspiration regarding Autumnal Tints.

Let it be, let it be

...for a man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.

Thoreau (source: Walden; or, Life in the Woods" 1854)

Face Forest

On my journey through the forests with House of WildWoodWoman, I have just made yet another stop and a site-specific art project - this time in Charlottenlund Skov (Charlottenlund Forest) near Copenhagen. Here I temporarily transformed the forest into a Face Forest by drawing faces on tree stumps with charcoal.

The exhibition and the ephemeral nature of the works was partly inspired by the Russian/Korean author Anatolij Kim, who writes poetically in "Otec-Les", ("Father-Forest"): "When a human being dies, it becomes a tree", and "when a tree dies, it becomes a human being".

Although I don't think this has to be taken literally, I think Man and Trees are constituent parts of an eternal cycle and connected physically as well as psychologically.

Which might be why we tend to project ourselves onto trees :-)

Where will the journey go from here?

I think Komtessens Plantage (The Countess's Plantation) on the island of Funen.

Snail Mail

Urban Treescapes

I just returned from New York where I spent a considerable amount of time strolling along the streets of Soho and Union Square photographing (the shadows of) urban trees in dialogue with the surroundings and bypassers.

As always: I couldn't see the city for the trees. Oh happy days!