Forest for the Tree

Artist: Daniel Laskarin

Curator: Lance Olsen

Date: May 12 to 28, 1994

Artist's Lecture: May 13

Working with optic lens refraction, Vancouver sculptor Daniel Laskarin's Forest for the Tree, consisted of an 1100-lb. tree suspended upside down from the ceiling with directed light and optic lenses creating luminous right-side up refracted images on the gallery walls. 

Daniel Laskarin, A Forest for the Tree, Open Space 1994

"A tree is, of course, just a tree, except when it's an image or when it's art. Aluminum shavings and boards are, similarly, just those things, except when they are a tree or some other dream. Some things are difficult to see really clearly, and others, easily seen, still refuse to settle into a comfortable identity. In general, the harder we look the fuzzier the gaze becomes. We devise numerous ways to try to hold on to things, to make them clear. We think the same though over and over; it becomes something else." 

Daniel Laskarin, "Artist's Statement", Open Space Archives, Victoria, B.C. (Box 26, File 1994: S4)