2025

When modern forestry was invented in the 1700s in Prussia, an entire forest was felled and replaced with Norway spruce, aligned in a grid. All undergrowth was removed so that the trees could be more easily counted and measured. eighty years on, the first harvest was good but the monoculture had depleted the soil for a second planting.

The timber used in “Basic Instinct” come from another grid: New York City. These urban trees have been cut down and were condemned to the chipper because the wood was commercially unfit. Either the tree was rotted inside or the pieces were too small to be slabbed. This wood is only useable in a small artisanal level of manufacturing where each piece is examined, not standardized; where irregularity is not a flaw but a distinction.

This chair was made from a maple tree that was once stood before 245 23rd Street, Brooklyn. It was felled in June of 2023 because the core of the tree had already rotted out. Once the rotted wood was removed, a complex shape remained that looked like part of a chair. The log was further coaxed to realize this function. In deliberate counterpoint to the wood’s texture and organic silhouette, a gridded seat of oak was introduced, accompanied by legs in aluminum and stainless steel: materials of order set gently against a body shaped by time.

“Modern Forestry” was exhibited as part of “Basic Instinct” at The Future Perfect in November 2025.