Jennifer Gunlock

These mixed media drawings demonstrate a fascination with the relationships between living beings and those of human imposition. With the application of photo transfers, tonal papers, and drawing media onto rag paper or panel, tree-based figures are constructed, whose bodies are awkwardly fused with metal gates, antennas, stone, and other human-derived objects.

Each of these tree-forms is an ancient, sentient thing whose lifespan evokes the rise of fall of civilizations and the forests they occupy. A people enters a forest, clears it, and builds upon it. The village grows into a mighty city, perhaps an empire, and eventually, inevitably, the people abandons its city, and the civilization dies. As their great monuments crumble into ruin, the forest slowly encroaches and reclaims its right for dominance. The ancient trees and ruin bump up and press against each other, causing tension and ultimately fusion. The result is a forest of hybrid beings, comprised of metal, stone and branch.