The Cherry Tree Project
(w. Roberto Pacheco)
1987
Based on the poetics of the Japanese traditional hanami blossom viewing ritual, this site-specific work celebrated the transient seasonal flowering of an immense backyard cherry tree and the diversity of the immediate community. The Cherry Tree Project presented several unusual kinesthetic experiences of the tree with two sets of stairs, a ladder and a bridge allowing access to each of three neighborhood backyards. The opportunity to observe the tree’s seasonal transformative states acts as a metaphor for the brevity of life. A site specific collaboration (with architect Roberto Pacheco) spanning three private gardens, the elevated sculpture--influenced by Russian Constructivist aesthetics--explored boundaries of public/private space, transcending demarcations of owner-ship in a community-based experience open to the public.
