Family Tree
May 2007 - Installation

Family tree looked to the objects that we have in our homes and re-used discarded elements in creating a piece about warmth, growth and the family unit.

The diagrammatic sculptural drawing re-used heating water pipes that were once providing a home with warmth and comfort. Transformed from redundant materials, I used the metaphor of a family tree diagram to comment on the way that the pipes were once, in a different form having the same purpose; that of linking the family members and running through the family home, enabling growth and providing protection and warmth.

A poignant coat situated with the ‘tree’ combined different objects that would usually be situated in a home. Bed sheets and magazine clippings create the coat, a garment of protection. The coat is a representation of myself and is modelled to fit me, this is in reference to the way that I have been produced from my family home and also in the sense of the family tree diagram that often ends in members, thus ending in me, the coat.

The form and shape of the pipes are intended to connote roots, trees, branches and a family tree diagram, albeit more free and organic than the structured drawings often produced for a families history.