In 2009, Pierre Jardin set several sandstones
in the crotch of forking branches
of a large Stone Pine tree.
Passersby often do not see them
until after they have looked
at stones on the ground,
so there is an added delight
in noticing the rocks in the tree.
There is something playful or incongruous
about rocks placed in trees;
they don’t belong, yet blend in.
It's as if the composition asks,
do stones grow on trees?
Why place stones in trees? What is the meaning of doing this? It is important that this is an open question, without a definitive answer. Picking up rocks and putting them in the crotches of tree limbs is a gesture, a basic action. Humans picking up stones and doing things with them is a rudimentary, ancient element in cultural evolution. The gesture is pre-linguistic and non-rational; it could be left to ‘speak’ for itself.
In the years since they were installed,
the rocks have sunk down into the branches
and can no longer be removed
without damaging wood or rock.
Most unexpectedly, a process
of organic weathering is unfolding:
the large sandstone is being
cracked by the tree’s growth.
This composition comprises a dialogue between inhuman durations, dendrochonological growth and geophysical erosion, and makes viscerally visible both the tensile liquid force of trees and the surprising fragility of some kinds of stone.
