A Tree Column

My name is Spring Hurlbut and I'm the artist who created the work in front of you. It's called, "A Tree Column". The idea is an age-old discourse that happens in architecture. It's really a speculation on how the first architectural building in the western world was constructed. And the theory that abounds is that sacred rites were carried out in tree groves and these tree groves eventually became the sites of temples.

You'll notice that the column in front of you is not holding up anything. In fact, what the column is doing is sitting right in the middle of columnar oaks, which are symbolic of the first groves where sacrificial rites were done. And within the tree groves, sacrificial rites were mandatory if you were following Greek pagan religion. And what that entailed was that it was imperative that the congregation made a sacrifice to appease the gods.

So this idea of the origin, specifically of a first column, was introduced to me after seeing Bramante's Column of Loggia in the courtyard of the Basilica of St. Ambrogio, Milan. And what I really liked were the ideal proportions of Bramante's Renaissance Column. They were subtly altered with the addition of knots that were carved on the marble shaft to resemble a tree. I have the knots and the bark revealed because I literally used and existing tree to mold the tree column with. So the shaft is a natural replica of a wind-fallen tree.

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