Saw this upholstered tree stump on Boing Boing today and thought it would be a great public art project for my friends at the Vancouver Public Space Network to take up.
Artist Madelon Galland started the STUMP Project in New York City to “activate spaces that have been under neglect” and “participate with what is signified in a tree stump, a beloved life form that has been diminished.” Upholstering stumps, she says, ” is a gesture of caring and a posture of respect toward what is beneath our feet.” Sweet.
The project was inspired by the story The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, in which a tree has given of herself to the point of being diminished to a stump, but selflessly perks herself up to give to the last, by providing a seat for the beloved boy who is now an aged man.
From Madelon’s How To at SuperNaturale:
This really began as unauthorized public art, and is not intended as something to have, but rather as a gesture to give. The street stumps are anchored and framed with firm roots and city masonry as they are, and what we do is contribute, care, and dignify that which has been diminished thus giving vitality again to spaces usually below the pedestrian radar.
I’d love to do this. Maybe in the vein of Knitta Please, though, since I’m a better knitter than upholsterer.
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