More than just a pretty face

When nature and beauty invites you to take a deeper look and examine your beliefs — Happy Earth Day!

A visitor to Treehouse, the exhibit I curated at Brentwood Arts Exchange, told me that she and her husband had been fighting with each other the day of the opening event. They stewed in the car all the way to the gallery. After walking around the space, their anger began to dissipate and they both felt more calm and willing to hear each other.

Why did this happen?

One explanation: beauty can make us feel a sense of awe and wonder. When we feel awe and wonder, “Research suggests that awe helps us feel more connected to the people in our lives and to humanity as a whole.”

Beauty elicits joy. Beauty is a salve. Beauty is medicine.

Treehouse is an explosion of beautiful and pleasing colors, flowers, and organic materials that draw you into the space and elicit feelings of joy. The beauty of Treehouse goes deeper than what you see on the surface, though. Treehouse reminds us of our relationship to nature and to each other and asks: What are our responsibilities to our fellow humans and to the preservation of the world we live in together? What does it mean to be in community with one another? What actions will we take to create a world in which we can all flourish?

Treehouse Concept Statement

Treehouse invites the viewer into a space of beauty that encourages us to wonder about the world and each other. Imagine a world in which we all can flourish, and are connected to nature and one another. This multisensory, collaborative installation is a portal for reflection, reconnection, remembrance and dialogue.

As you enter the gallery, you are immediately immersed in a dynamic space where colors shift, branches, flowers and other organic forms arise unexpectedly, and ambient sounds featuring bird calls fill the air. It is a playful space, yet also a haunting one. The color of the walls references the Air Quality Index, which indicates how clean or polluted the air is, with green being healthy on one end of the spectrum and crimson being hazardous on the other. As one moves around the room from green to crimson, the colors, flora, forms and imagery change accordingly, as does the emotional tone. Contrast the colorful playfulness of the origami birds and fungi fairy circle in the green section with the visceral and apocalyptic paintings and sculptures on the opposite side of the room in the red/crimson section. The Dryads sculptures in the red section, refer to the ancient Greek myth of shy tree nymphs. These hybrid forms made of packing paper cast around dead tree branches and human body parts express the temporary state of our existence and give voice to our interwoven relationship with the natural world.

The dialogue of the man-made and the organic, along with the cycle of fresh beginnings and decay appear throughout the installation. Fresh flowers and greenery are intentionally employed so the exhibit will age throughout its duration, providing different viewing experiences at different times, a metaphor for seasonal shifts and a harbinger of our changing environment. The music features calls of endangered wild birds mixed with electronic melodies at turns upbeat and eerie.

Treehouse is a place of community and connection. Stools are provided around the central tree, one can sit on the disc of oak on the floor among the yellow willows and carefully enter the origami bird flock suspended on the green wall. There are also stools within the large stump-like niche, reminiscent of an ancient redwood. The spaces create an atmosphere of repose, with time to converse, reflect and connect to the surroundings and one another. In the yellow walled “living garden” area various edible plants sprout in recycled containers. These plants have been grown from seed and will be disseminated freely, extending the show into the surrounding community.

Treehouse is also a call to action. The origami birds are made in honor and remembrance of Eon, a trans person who passed from AIDs. The color palette of the birds references the LGBTQ flag, and creates an intimate environment for dialogue. The Tree of Positive Actions invites viewers to imagine a world in which we all can flourish, and are connected to one another and to nature. Take a leaf and write a positive action you can take in support of this vision. Add your leaf to the Tree of Positive Actions, and commit to your action. In doing so, you become part of a community whose collective power can transform, connect and heal.

The collaborative process that created this immersive installation was intentional, as is the omission of individual labels in the exhibit. Treehouse is the culmination of months of dialogue, idea exchange, feedback, studio work and visits, and the accumulated focused energy of our coalition. In this respect, the synergy of the group has produced a gestalt, a metaphor for how we might connect with one another and our world.

The Treehouse exhibit will be on view through June 25 at Brentwood Arts Exchange, 3901 Rhode Island Avenue, Brentwood, Maryland.