Isabelle Anguita

The installation Forest Simulacrum consists of a cluster of 7-foot-tall fabric columns, adorned with cast silicone and gelatin molds of tree bark. Standing in as trees, they were made to recreate the memory and the satisfaction of a walk in the forest, while emphasizing the impossibility of this attempt. This work stems from the desire to create a copy that would partially reproduce the original experience while also denouncing the artificiality of our relationship with nature. The benefits of a walk in the forest for our mental well-being are now unquestionable. Since the pandemic, virtual overstimulation has made us all look for, or feel deprived of a patch of nature where we can recharge our batteries. However, in our capitalist society, our relationship to nature is experienced through its consumption; our very desire to be close endangers its sustainability. The ghostly, empty, and disembodied trees are a tragic allegory of their own disappearance. Thus, this installation presents an experience of post-apocalyptic renewal through the memory of a forest.