John Grade's "Middle Fork" comes home to the Seattle Art Museum

"I like to think of the sculpture as a sort of skin that's been shed by the tree, and that it's thickness is roughly commensurate with how long it would take the tree to grow the same thickness as the sculpture. So in a way, what we're talking about is something that's an ode to those two years in the life of the tree."
John Grade’s large-scale sculpture, Middle Fork, echoes the contours of a 140-year-old western hemlock tree located in the Cascade Mountains east of Seattle.
Beginning by making a full plaster cast of the living tree, the artist and a cadre of volunteers used this mold to recreate the tree’s form out of thousands of pieces of reclaimed old-growth cedar. Middle Fork was conceived and fabricated at MadArt Studio and made its Seattle debut there in January 2015. The original work was 40-feet long and has more than doubled in length for its installation in SAM's Brotman Forum.

[@samarindo]

Such a great work ! It sounds those days beside the tree were pure wisdom. Bringing that into the urban landscapes, involving the people, watching them full of joy being part of the creation. And the end, being open to the unexpected, such a lesson John, thank you for the inspiration !!

[@vladua6jd393]

Today went to the museum and were amazed by the colossal view of the tree over our heads. Last year's cars also looked very impressionable. Thank you for the excellent work

[@girlshawn]

I saw this tree and couldn’t stop thinking about it. Then I searched for it on SAMs site and found the video. Thanks for documenting the process. It’s something else.

[@GrandmaLaura2nd]

just visited SAM and thought I would learn about this sculpture. Kudos to John Grade for sharing his vision with so many people

[@blackartslove4264]

This is awesome!