Curdled Tango, scultpure detail

“By the Dripping Tree” is physical and personal, the aluminum columns “Whispering Pause”, “Salty Wine” and “Curdled Tango”, are lush yet surface-less and unreachable. They reflect the plush mediated presentations we are used too, but actually possess little resemblance to the natural world. They represent both what we want and what we are missing.

They Call Me Theirs, at the NoteBaert Nature Museum Chicago, addresses man’s desire to mediate the natural environment through technology. Forster’s multi-media project includes sound, sculpture, video and inkjet prints mounted on aluminum panels. By creating an audiovisual experience of the four seasons and placing them inside a rustic cabin, Forster plays with the way we have come to understand and experience nature.

The title of the work is taken from a line in the poem “Hamatreya” by Ralph Waldo Emerson, which questions man’s desire to claim ownership of the land that is inherently owned by nature. In the poem, the Earth responds, “How am I theirs, / If they cannot hold me, / But I hold them?”

Similarly, the exhibition holds a sound-insulated cabin or shrine for the viewer to enter. A handcrafted hardwood box containing a small personal monitor with images of the four seasons sits inside. Two different cacophonous soundtracks play from both the interior and exterior of the cabin, highlighting the tension between the realities of the two environments.

Curatorial Projects

Director of LiveBox Gallery and independent curator. LiveBox is a non-for-profit gallery focused on video and new media arts. LiveBox is a roving gallery, deploying Chicago's neighborhoods as exhibition sites and screening opportunities.

For more information: www.liveboxgallery.com

"They Call Me Theirs", multi-media installation

Exterior to the cabin is a hanging garden created from large-scale inkjet prints mounted on aluminum panels.

“Beckoning with its strong, curving branches, verdant foliage and draping vines of—paint? Forster extracted images of trees from digital film stills, then modified them manually with drips and squiggles of paint reminiscent of Jackson Pollock, before digitizing the final images and printing them on aluminum sign panels. Forster tidily encapsulates the human experience of nature in all its artificial glory. (Karen Huang, Newcity)