Intimate Certainty

2023, Rabbit-chewed poplar trees & chalk

My family and I live on a piece of land that was clear cut about 20 years ago. The regenerating forest is made up primarily of tightly packed young poplar trees. Each spring patches of young trees emerge from winter missing sections of bark around their bases where wild rabbits have chewed the bark. These trees generally don’t survive and one tiny mystery about how the forest would gradually balance itself was solved for me.

I began collecting some of these trees, realizing that they are only recognizable until the spring and summer weather turns them grey. The decision making of the rabbits was what initially interested me, why choose this tree and not the one next to it?

The trees started to read like an impenetrable poem – or maybe a poem in another language. Either way it is a hint of a world that is just beyond my understanding. This installation follows the intuition of these questions.