Crinolined Tree and Silva Tree are linked. We made this tree first – it was to be the armature or perhaps, a crinoline, for a silver branched cypress tree but, in its uncovered state, it seemed complete in itself and so we left it as it was.
The handle is from a set of twelve 19th-century German ceramic knives and forks.
Cutlery handle ceramic 19th century German. Silver.
I am interested by the similarities in different parts of nature: the way trees branch being almost mirrored by their root systems and in this case how sea fans look like trees. Much of my deep imagination lies under the sea and when I started on the Treehandles project I remembered these corals that get washed up on beaches. Each individual fan is matched to a particular handle (ultimately, I have to thank Marcel Duchamp) which is a most enjoyable pursuit – to find the right combination so that they talk to each other and sit happily together.
Here the armature is covered with silver branches, as I originally envisaged. I particularly like the way some of them ‘stick out’ just like they do on real cypress trees.
The handle is green agate and there is a ribbon of gold wrapped around the bezel.
The title is a play on words.
In 1998 Christo and Jean-Claude wrapped 178 trees, with a woven polyester fabric, in the park around the Fondation Beyeler in Switzerland. This is my tribute to an artist whose work I have always admired.
Bella Gonshorovitz made the silk organza wrappings and their shape is held with flat copper strip. The trunks are three large ceramic handles, carving knife and fork and sharpening wand. I think this is Masons Ironstone but I haven't identified the pattern. Only one of the three was unbroken and that led to the different sizes of tree. They are designed to have the light coming from behind so that you can see the branches through the organza.
Fossilised coral, coral from vintage necklace, 19th-century American breadknife handle
The last handle on the right had a stilton scoop attached to it. I imagine a cartoon by Gillray with a large gentleman digging into a huge wheel of Stilton cheese. Here it has become the last stage of a tree’s growth complete with small gold seeds.
Bone cutlery handles; oxidised silver; 18 carat gold
This piece is constructed from two very different forms of agate: the oval part has inclusions that look like falling leaves, the light shines through the semitransparent stone and you can imagine the leaves falling from an autumnal tree. The trunk is made from a dark green agate cutlery handle with bark like markings. Scientifically, iron and manganese ions seep into the agate as it forms but then, the human eye finds meaning and beauty.
This Puginesque handle comes from a pickle fork. It seems almost unbelievable now that the late 19th century home was replete with every sort of implement to skewer gherkins and anchovies or the like.
I went to the new Islamic galleries at the British Museum and, in one of the cases there is an album made by a 19th-century Persian woman. The open page had a cypress tree illustration, cut out of pink paper. We photographed it and used it as a pattern to pierce out the shape from silver sheet.
The title reflects the surreal absurdity of this object.
These agate knife handles have an icy feel to them and I was thinking of the tiny Arctic plants which struggle against the cold and have their own beauty in perseverance.
I have started to do some work with ammonites and here a spindly bush grows from this 400 million-year-old fossil one of more than 10,000 ammonite species. It will sound naive, but how extraordinary to have such an ancient treasure so easily available – in this case a Czech dealer in fossils who sells on eBay.
The handle or trunk is made from a 19th-century wooden handle from the USA. It is interesting that the way cutlery was made there seems to differ from that made in Europe. A knife or fork was cut from a strip of steel and the handle section was then covered with two separate pieces of wood, riveted through the whole thing. If you look at the side you can see the strip of steel running down it.
Cutlery handle – wood and pewter (?), steel; Ammonite; oxidised silver; 18 carat gold solder
Butter knife handle – glass. Silver; pearls; diamonds.
This is the only remaining set of hanging Treehandles left for sale at Make Hauser & Wirth @make_hwsomerset ‘Gathering’ exhibition. I think it shows, particularly well, the relationship between the Tree and its Trunk.
See displays from Make Hauser and Wirth Somerset.
The idea for Hedge came from a painting by Charlotte Verity, not a hedge, but some bare branches above a wall.
I had five handles that date from the time of Jane Austin, small and delicate dessert cutlery for cutting up fruit, I think. I did not clean them so that I presume the DNA of the people who used them is still there.
The branches are wintry but there are some coral berries left hanging.
