In her solo project Hollow places court in Ash-Tree Wood, Jessica Stockholder has made several works from the wood of a 125-year-old ash tree that formerly grew in the Aldrich’s sculpture garden. The exhibition includes several discrete sculptural works within a site-responsive installation. The major elements in the exhibition are two large freestanding sculptures that resemble folding screens. Fabricated from boards cut from the wood of the tree, they were conceived by Stockholder as static armatures that she will activate with various types of paint, from auto lacquer to acrylic, visually suggesting walls (or a gallery) filled with pictures. The forms represented reference eyes (among other things), mirroring the viewer’s gaze and suggesting both the accumulated experience of the tree and the fleeting experience of the viewer.
