Visual artist Sjoerd Buisman (born 1948) is fascinated by nature. Don’t expect landscapes on canvas from him. He creates artworks that sometimes feature living trees and shrubs, tying knots in branches. The artist manipulates and observes. How does a tree react when Buisman hangs it upside down? And how do people perceive it? The exhibition Buisman’s Trees answers these questions. There’s a good chance that viewers will never look at it the same way again.
Buisman’s trees
Plastic Events
A tree is no longer something green on a brownish trunk. Buisman raises awareness. He allows visitors to truly observe the beauty and processes of nature. The exhibition also provides insight into the breadth of the artist’s oeuvre. There are growths, sketches, and photographs, as well as finds such as tree stumps and abnormal growths. He describes these as “plastic events in nature.” Sometimes his material lives on after his interventions, but not always. For his sculpture Phyllotaxis Duval, he stacked several tree stumps on top of each other, which he then cast in bronze. Since the opening of Kranenburgh, this work has stood in the garden, where it is one of the masterpieces.
Indoors and Outdoors
In the spring, Buisman installed new work in the garden, including a willow palisade that will remain in place for a year and a half. The work will change with the seasons. The upside-down trees that Buisman hung in the garden have been moved indoors for the exhibition. In this way, he allows the interior and exterior to merge. This approach aligns with the ideas of architect Dirk Jan Postel, who, according to him, placed several walls in nature with the new building, and with whom Buisman has collaborated several times. Buisman worked with Postel on the design and garden for the Dutch residence in Beijing, among other projects. He was also involved in the development of Kranenburgh. He feels a strong bond with Bergen, thanks to his aunt, who had a garden similar to Kranenburgh and lived just down the road. He has also exhibited several times at the Bergen Artists’ Centre (KCB). In 2003, he received the Roland Holst Medal for his entire oeuvre.
The Sun and Shade Leaf Project
Within the visual arts, Buisman is considered the founding father of working with nature. He will celebrate his fiftieth anniversary as a sculptor next year (2016), although he also sometimes works as a scientist. This is the case with his Sun and Shade Leaf Project, a kind of megaherbarium with dried leaves. To achieve this, he picked two leaves from 175 tree species, selecting the sunniest and darkest spots using a compass. He cut south-facing specimens at a height of ten to twelve meters, using a long stick and a knife. For the north-facing leaves, he simply bent his knees. By hanging the 175 pairs of leaves alphabetically, written in Latin, he created a wall-sized installation that had only been shown once before: exactly forty years ago. With this and other works, Buisman’s Trees offers insight into various phases of Buisman’s artistry and his development over the past decades.
