SUMMARY

Anthony Heinz May is an emerging New York City artist originally from Oregon, who now has public exhibits of his work throughout the country.  He overlaps ideas and contexts of the city as they meet and approach cycles found in nature. “Nature’s Keystone” is a site-specific installation of sculpture using a hemlock tree that fell in a windstorm two weeks before Anthony arrived to work onsite. We originally had a different smaller installation in a different location here in mind, and then his creative juices flowed upon envisioning the possibilities that nature, the Sculpture Forest’s approach to art, and this specific down tree provided for him as a large scale palette while onsite.  Nature’s Keystone is reflective of relationships between nature, humans, and technology. The tree has been pixelated and digitized, reminding us to experience nature directly and not just through digital devices.  All of the connected blocks that are energetically crashing from the two sides of the main trunk were re-constructed back in the same order that they came from the original whole tree.

ABOUT THE SCULPTURE

As a site-specific installation of sculpture using a hemlock tree that fell in the Sculpture Forest, Nature’s Keystone is reflective of relationships between nature, humans, and technology.  It is a segue of overarching connections between these entities.  This work presents itself in the original place where a tree fell from winds sustained during a powerful storm.  Through gridding and reattachment of natural woody material taken directly from the original tree trunk, the presentation of nature appears confused or compromised by digitization and physical pixelation of its natural form.

ABOUT THE SCULPTOR

As an emerging New York City artist originally from Oregon, Anthony overlaps ideas and contexts of the city as they meet and approach cycles found in nature. It is his intention as an artist to present reconstructions of trees and tree appendages as a way to attune humans with real, physical nature as the origins for all life on Earth. Different versions of these site-responsive sculptures can be found across 16 states in the USA plus Quebec.  They are installed in natural, rural, and urban parks, as well as areas of civic integration. He is most compelled by locations where public discourse concerning nature is encouraged, such as the Sculpture Forest. His body of work responds to the felling of trees due to storms, human activity, or a combination of both (which is often the case). He has learned from his travels that human action has left an imprint on nature and natural cycles.  He believes it is certainly from all the waste humans make of the natural landscape for economic production. Although the grid of civilization is eventually overwhelmed by the resilience of nature, nature itself should command more respect and consideration in the progression of civilization itself. The compass for navigation as a way for humans to connect with nature needs to be examined as a positive way forward. Anthony’s intentions are to facilitate nature and humans as an extension of one another, especially in a time when artificiality created by humans is more relevant than the real in our current culture.