Merritt Johnson, Forest seed basket for present and future understanding, 2019
Handwoven black ash; “lifesize”
Image courtesy of the artist, Accola Griefen Gallery and Patel Brown Gallery.
Artist Statement:
The seeds are capable of growing large, strong trees, tolerant of wind and saline air, capable of growing forests in wet acidic soil where few other trees can thrive (Indigenous to the pacific coast of North America). The tank form holds contemporary attempts at respiratory support, emergency efforts to stabilize failing health, and our reliance on our most necessary bodily functions. The Black Ash splints holds the failing health of forests impacted by global trade, logging, forced burning, and industrial pollution. Recently abundant, Black Ash, Indigenous to wet areas of Northeastern North America, is under threat by the Emerald Ash Borer, an invasive insect. Throughout the world forests are being decimated by the impacts of human extractive practices, clear cutting, burning, and destruction by species transported through human movement.
The work insists on our dependence on forests for clean, oxygenated air, on the connection and interdependence of all life, and the responsibility we have to everything living now and in the future.