“Wooden Conversations” ties a pair of pine trees to a wooden door via a cable and pulley system, creating a sort of ventriloquy where the living “wild” wood and the dead “domestic” wood each animate one another. The sounds of trees creaking and doors squeaking echo each other – the dead wooden product speaks with the voice of the tree and the tree’s voice is made recognizable by its similarity to the product’s creak. This work seeks to dramatise the shared fibres between nature and our built environment, which we tend to separate, so we might better acknowledge our ties to the wild entities seeded into our lives.
NOTE! The door and the trees can be moody and might not be interested in conversing.
Mohar Kalra is an American artist and researcher who creates interactive artworks that offer unexpected interfaces to the commonplace. In the process, he explores how we reflect and are reflected in the technological, biological, ecological, and digital systems that scaffold our lives.
