Between Architecture and Nature: Anya Gallaccio’s Ghost Tree
As one of the Young British Artists, Anya Gallaccio is known for producing site-specific works that inhale the prescribed climate and space. She often collaborates closely with nature when selecting materials, succumbing to the test of natural forces and exploring the magic of the life cycle through the passage of time, memory, and loss.
Commissioned for The Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester, Untitled (2016), dubbed the ‘ghost tree,’ illustrates the story of not just one tree, but also the institution’s history and the power of art in mediating between architecture and nature.
Anya Gallaccio, Untitled, 2016. Installation view at The Whitworth. Image courtesy of The Whitewall Company.
“It’s a circular thing. The tree is part of the gallery in that it was commissioned by that institution and it’s now part of the park–it’s knitting everything back together.”
On Gallaccio’s visit to The Whitworth in preparation for her sculptural commission, she couldn’t help but notice a gap in the troop of London Plane Pines that flanks the south side of the gallery building. She was informed that during the tree survey exercise for the gallery expansion, one of the pine trees was diagnosed sick and felled. Inspired by the sight and the anecdote, the artist investigated the digital scans of the tree and decided to reproduce by data a ‘ghost tree’ in response to the loss. The sculpture was fabricated in complex geometric stainless steel panels to match the form of the original tree as closely as possible.
Anya Gallaccio, Untitled, 2016. View from inside The Whitworth art gallery. Photo by Janie Airey for Art Fund.
Untitled sits in an open park space filled with the vitality of plants and the humming of birds. At the back of the sculpture is the gallery building, with the latest extension bloc featuring floor-to-ceiling glass panels framed by steel mullions on an elevated red brick foundation. The positioning of the ‘ghost tree’ between nature and architecture bridges a cyclical relationship between inside and outside. It channels a continuation of the gallery to the park, which shares the role of art display by housing a dozen sculptures for public enjoyment. The work punctuates a strong statement of intersectionality, projecting an unmatched harmony with the landscape and becoming a focal point, thus embodying the inside and the outside in one. Whether from within the gallery or in the open park, visitors take a moment to spot the sculpture. Constructed as a succession to the once-existing but now-deceased tree, the ‘ghost tree’ survives the spirit of the dead and transcends its physical being into a permanent form of presence–indicating the continuation of the life cycle.
The Whitworth. Photo by Alison Lo.
Beyond the connection of the tree and its physical surroundings, the sculpture draws close resonance with the history of its site. The Whitworth was founded in memory of Sir Joseph Whitworth, an engineer who worked closely with steel in his inventions and entrepreneurial ventures. The founding principle was to “create a gallery for the perpetual gratification for the people of Manchester.” The institution adopted the slogan “making art useful since 1889,” and underwent phases of change throughout its development according to the needs of society. Since its opening as the Whitworth Institute and Park in 1889, it aims to serve people of all social classes at a time when unjust treatment of people of lower social status was prevalent. The commissioning of Gallaccio to produce a permanent sculpture in the open air honours The Whitworth’s founding principle to bring lasting pleasure to the people, and the artist’s choice of stainless steel for the sculpture is an amicable tribute to Sir Whitworth’s attachment to the metal. Aligning with the ambitions of the gallery’s expansion in 2015, the artist envisioned the sculpture as an artwork to bridge the enclosed gallery with the wider public realm outside, reaching out not only to the park but also to the people of Manchester.
Anya Gallaccio, Untitled (detail), 2016. Image courtesy of The Whitewall Company.
Contrary to Gallaccio’s signature organic installations that wither with time, Untitled is a permanent installation and takes the form of a metallic sculpture. Despite its lifeless property, it mimics the shape of a tree in the same location just as much as the other London Plane Pines that continue to grow. Its mirrored surface creates an optical illusion that the sculpture is an organic form, allowing it to dissolve into nature and its own architecture. Reflecting changing natural phenomena such as time, weather, and seasons, as well as movements of tree leaves, animals, and people, the ‘ghost tree’ stands as the liveliest tree in the park.
Anya Gallaccio, Untitled, 2016. Installation view at The Whitworth.
Gallaccio’s sculptural creation quietly responds to the topography and preconditions of its site, allowing art to quietly subside into the existing architectural landscape. Whilst nature and architecture traditionally reign over their own territories, civilisation inevitably brings them together. It’s art that demonstrates the willpower and potential to forge an alliance between the two, and its intervention in nature and architecture through the example of Untitled succeeds in unveiling greater possibilities in site-specific art in the open air.
Alison Lo
En Plein Air Editor, MADE IN BED