Tree Constructions

The origin of these composite tree formations dates back to when they were exhibited at Moderna Museet in connection with Live Show 1974 – a kind of "frozen spatial happening" and a reminder of the connection between humans and nature.
The joining of the same material from different stages surely evoked thoughts about art's ingratiating nature as well as its transience and self-destruction. Live Show was a collaboration with Ulrik Samuelson and Björn Levin.

The experience in the almost pitch-black exhibition hall was like descending into one of Hades' realms of the dead. We visitors could sense that something dramatic had taken place on the site and that only certain ritual objects had been abandoned or left behind.
Above a large glass box, filled with a hayrack of black-painted grass, the word "Hö" (Hay) hung, glowing in neon.

There is a biblical proverb that reads "all flesh is hay," which refers to the transience of all living things and that one day they die. The phrase "All flesh is hay" is also part of the well-known summer hymn En vänlig grönskas rika dräkt, number 201 in Den svenska psalmboken. The line is found in the hymn's third verse, where the beauty of summer is contrasted with the transience of life and the steadfastness of God's word. What this could have to do with the exhibition was left to the visitor's own imagination.
The experience in this burial chamber had little to do with a school graduation. Rather, it appeared as a visual image of an obituary.

To hay-rack green grass is an ancient method of drying freshly cut grass: it is hung on a wooden frame to dry into hay.
Here, everything gave the impression of having been burned.
Transience means that something is temporary, changeable, and does not last forever. The concept is often used to describe the inevitable process of dissolution and death to which all living and material things are subject. A possible exception might be art: Ars longa, vita brevis – art is long, life is short.

Like an Egyptian guardian in a burial chamber, a white sculpture sat on a white plinth at the entrance to the hall – a miniature casting of Sivert. Perhaps it can be seen as a Nordic version of the Egyptian guardian and warrior Medjay, whose depictions have been found in Egyptian tombs and pyramids.

The exhibition Live Show at Moderna Museet ran between May 4 and June 3, 1974, a total of 31 days – exactly one month.
/JÖ