The Pasture is a gathering spot for a gang of good-natured wooden friends who have assembled to reminisce about long-lived lives as trees in the American North East. Each figure has been carved and constructed using only storm-fallen logs and branches collected by their maker, Brooklyn-based artist Hunter Potter. Imperfect “bow tie" inlays have also been added to mitigate the wood's natural cracking and draw attention to the beauty of the material’s age and unpredictable nature.
Far from being a professional woodworker, Potter camped in a tent at a rural lumber yard in upstate New York for many months while building this motley crew. He fostered a close friendship with the yard's owner, who allowed for the unusual arrangement, perhaps because there was some joy in seeing such an extraordinary herd of characters coming to life on the grounds. Cut first with a chainsaw and then shaped using various grinders and sanders, many of the works are assembled from multiple pieces of wood that connect without the use of nails, screws, or other fasteners. Other sculptures have been carved from individual pieces of timber that seemed to relay their "desired" incarnations to the artist innately. Both approaches yield extremely playful abstractions of the human form and condition.
As Geppeto crafted Pinnochio, Hunter Potter’s human-like creatures are made with love. In his hands, these forgotten logs take on second lives, and the statues feel conscious, sensitive, and even active as they bow and sway with long twisting arms, elongated necks, and deeply inset eyes that provide clues and context for each figure’s unique history in the forest. Instead of faithfully mimicking any human likeness, this diverse family feels like a band of outcasts and misfits who are blissfully unaware of their unique spirit and charms.
The Pasture opens at SHRINE NYC on December 13th.
