Continuing GRACE Exhibitions

Sleeping Tree -- Outdoor installation

After the gallery exhibition Shinji Turner-Yamamoto returned to Reston for the next phase of Sleeping Tree. Again, with the help of Reston Association, the tree was hand carried outside GRACE and trucked to a nearby school. The tree is now part of a public art installation behind Dogwood Elementary School where it also serves as a major feature in the school's outdoor classroom. Children and their teachers can observe nature interacting with Sleeping Tree and use their experience as a springboard for learning about trees, art, and nature.

The project is supported in part by a grant from the Arts Council of Fairfax County with funds from Fairfax County.
Sponsor: Initiative for Public Art Reston (IPAR)

See the Sleeping Tree Video

Artist's statement:

The installation in the woodland celebrates the Sleeping Tree's new life, reconnecting ourselves to the earth and the heaven and making invisible connections visible.

In addition to the dogwood tree, the main elements of the installation are: Virginia clay, ferns, a volunteer plant near the root, the earth/ground, heaven/sky, trees and other plants that surround the tree in the woodland.

I used clay for covering most of the tree's surface and for creating a mound. The installation explores regeneration - the stage of rebirth. I want nature to continue and complete the work. The sleeping tree, supported by a mound that will eventually indicate the space the tree once inhabited, will slowly become a nurse tree, giving life to other plants.

In the natural environment the clay is hidden underneath the ground, covered by top soil and plants. Found in the abdomen of the earth, this clay, this cosmic ocean, this indistinct world, symbolizes unrealized form and potential.