Alan Sonfist's ship setting in TICKON has become the park's symbol – the ship shape enclosing an oak leaf.
But of the original work, only the stones remain - they will, on the other hand, remain there forever and will constantly lead the audience and perhaps later archaeologists to believe that this is a shipwreck from the Bronze Age, the Iron Age or the Viking Age.
The artist's idea with his installation was also a tribute to Denmark - precisely to our ancient graves, but also to the proud Danish oak. Therefore, no fewer than 1001 small oak trees were planted within the stone setting - the trees even stood in formation like an oak leaf, which was marked with field stones.
Today, there is still vegetation within the large pumice stones, but no longer oak trees, which do not thrive in the area below the hill. Instead, natural vegetation has taken over the role as representatives of Denmark.
From time to time, the audience asks why TICKON does not get the work re-established and oak trees planted. There are two answers to that: It is not TICKON's task to radically change nature – an oak plantation would require total human control to survive. Secondly, it actually happened exactly what was expected: that nature gradually takes over and leaves reminiscences of a work behind – in this case the indestructible stones.
The mix of nature and culture is typical for Alan Sonfist. Eg. in 1990-92 he filled an old Hawk Missile with soil and young trees in the expectation that the trees would blow up the missile.
The frustration that his childhood forest in Manhattan was burned down and then poured with cement on the slopes down to the river has been his main driving force.
He wants to prove with his art that nature is able to take over. In the midst of pollution – such as in a landfill - he adds soil and plants trees. But he is also interested in how civilizations replace each other, as in the work Circles of Time, which he created in Tuscany in the late '80s. He planted in ever-circling circles the history of European culture – from the center of the circle with tree species from before the age of man, then herbs from the Etruscans, bronze branches and laurels representing the Greeks, a stone-paved road was the contribution of the Romans, etc.
Alan Sonfist, born in 1946 in the South Bronx, has mainly worked in the USA, but also in Tuskland, Brazil, France and Italy – both with nature art and with sculptures and projects that make the original landscape visible.
Artist: Alan Sophist
Year: 1993
Alan Sonfist, born in 1946 in the South Bronx, has mainly worked in the USA, but also in Tuskland, Brazil, France and Italy – both with nature art and with sculptures and projects that make the original landscape visible.