Trees Inside Out, an installation by Judith Belzer of structures and paintings exploring the nature of wood, opened March 15, 2009 at dosa818 in the Wurlitzer Building. Inspired by Judith’s paintings and her observations of nature painted from memory, Christina Kim offered the artist the opportunity to make a site-specific body of work.

 

This series of paintings presented a multiplicity of textures, patterns, and perspectives housed inside two distinct wooden structures. Built from plywood, the exterior of the tree-like structures were inlaid with paintings that simulated the texture of bark. The stumpier of the two buildings contained larger scale paintings in which the striations and rings of a tree’s heartwood become abstract. The taller structure contained twenty-four smaller paintings, magnifying the undulant wood grain, revealing knots and splinters in detail. Both engaged the viewer experientially - offering exterior and interior space for the viewer to investigate, to move up close to the paintings while simulating the imaginary act of climbing into a tree.

 

With Trees Inside Out, Judith Belzer brought nature into the urban environment, inviting the viewer to consider nature not as a remote destination, out there in the landscape, but as an ever-present force in our daily lives.