Tree

Tree explores the forms, uses, and alliances of this living object's entanglement with humanity, from antiquity to the Anthropocene. Trees tower over us and yet fade into background. Their lifespan outstrips ours, and yet their wisdom remains inscrutable, treasured up in the heartwood. They serve us in many ways--as keel, lodgepole, and execution site--and yet to become human, we had to come down from their limbs. Matthew Battles's Tree follows the tree's branches across art, poetry, and landscape, marking the edges of imagination with wildness and shadow.