Karen van der Molen’s forest of recycled roofing material, has a strong textural aspect to the rust colours, the corrosion from weather. Functional materials re-purposed into art, worn by time, then given a new purpose, these “trees” occupy the inner space at the Tsukuba Art Center. Spotlight, with stone gravel surrounding them, they have a stage-like presence and develop a dialogue on inner and outer space, on nature and industry, on the natural and the manufactured… A larger tree stands on its own outside and at a distance from the Art Center… Made of the same worn and weathered corrugated material the tree has a solemn presence … The materials transformed I to industrial, now return symbolically and physically to the nature there came from. Trees in a forest carry a certain energy, and their purpose is simply to grow, to live, and the industrial structures we build are every bit as temporary as nature’s… So the seemingly incongruous juxtaposition of corrugated metal trees in a forest setting, and of an artificial “forest” in the Art Center build into this installation a rapport between the human and natural, and even make us question what is “real”.

                                                                                                John K Grande