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Consider the Lorax
Artist: Mark Ryden
In Ketchum, a multi-media art exhibition has formed a kind of magical woodland environment. At the Friesen Gallery and its satellite space across 2nd Ave., “Speak for the Trees” includes paintings, sculpture, photography, glass and conceptual works and is the complement event to a stunning new fine art book of the same name. Imagined and created by gallery owner Andria Friesen, the tome and its exhibition appeal to “art lovers, environmentalists, those interested in sustainability and spirituality, ” Friesen said. “Art is just the beginning.”
Friesen began by asking artists she knew and represented to participate by letting her use a work for the book and the exhibition. These artists then suggested others she could include. One artist, Yoko Ono, contacted her about including a Wish Tree installation (currently on exhibit in the satellite gallery). The book included 73 works by 76 artists, including husband and wife team Jeanne-Claude and Christo, and the twin Starn brothers.
Friesen asked three things of the artists: an image, the artists’ statement about trees (not, crucially, about art about trees) and a chosen accessory text. The submissions were diverse and deep, with quotes from writers and thinkers ranging from Abraham Lincoln to the Buddha and Henry David Thoreau.
These are “words of wisdom juxtaposed with the works of these contemporary artists,” Friesen said.
Like all good art books, the book itself—and not just the images within—is a piece of art. Published by Marquand and carefully composed from cover to cover, the book advances like a tree itself, from roots to blossoms.
Only some of the artists had heard of Andria Friesen prior to the project. But all agreed to participate based on the title alone; the artists’ visual and written offerings were donated, and no royalties were paid for any copyrighted text. The proceeds of this first edition (aside from printing costs) will equally benefit the Esalen Institute in California and the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland.
The exhibition will remain on view at Friesen Gallery Sun Valley until Feb. 27 and will reopen at the Friesen Gallery Seattle on April 1. The book is available at the Friesen Gallery, www.speakforthetreesbook.com and Iconoclast Books.
Read Sun Valley Magazine's Winter 2009/2010 article about "Speak for the Trees" here
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