The Wood for the Trees (2006)

This large-scale drawing makes a decisive step to use the materials of the forest (paper, pencils) to reproduce its image. In this case, the wood for the trees refers to both an inability to see material due to its plenitude; and to a literal exchange whereby the forest provides the material for its reproduction.

While making the drawing, I became interested in Daniel Tammet, a savant who recalled 22, 541 digits of Pi from memory. Tammet recalls the numbers by seeing them as a landscape that he moves through. The top of the drawing is shaped after a horizon line drawn by Tammet, in which the first hundred numbers of Pi are expressed.

(Pencil on paper 59”x64”)