Oracle of the Ashes of Plants, 2021
Oracle of the Ashes of Plants, 2021
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3D Sculpture, Led Screen Displayed at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre

In the Oracle of the Ashes of Plants, Si Qin explores the relationship that humans have with nature throughout the Millenia. After visiting an archeological site in the mountains of Romania, he came across limestone dwellings that date back to the Neolithic era. One temple sat atop a steep hill in a beech forest, cut into a stone cliff, the landscape had been modified by diverse cultures and settlements marking thousands of years of use and adaptation. At the entrance was the stump of an enormous ancient spruce tree, to the artist it felt almost theatrically staged, symbolic of the state of the natural world in 2020. Oracle of the Ashes of Plants is the 3D-scanned remains of this tree. The stump is augmented, supported by a generated structure as well as sections of smooth geometric artificing and interpolation. The tree is orbited by a curved LED video that depicts its original environment. The work explores the anthropocentric mindset that characterizes humanity's domination of the natural world.