Through El Bosque/The Forest I hope to provoke thought about the vulnerability of our orbiting home and the tenuous balance of its resources with its inhabitants. Human survival and the preservation of nature are not mutually exclusive; on the contrary, they are inexorably interrelated. Through an artistic interpretation, I hope that by contemplating a world without trees we can better understand their importance in our lives.

The Forest is an artistic-ecological sculpture show, the purpose of which is to raise a greater awareness to the dangers of deforestation throughout the world.
The theme of the exhibit is the tree. The participants consist of both American and Mexican sculptors, each of whom created a “tree” made in any material of their choice, except wood or its by-products.
Given that the fundamental purpose of this project is to create greater consciousness to this serious problem, the exhibit of The Forest will be shown in public places. This is a bi-national sculpture exhibit between the United States and Mexico, which will travel to three cities in each country.

The basic criteria for selecting these particular artists, apart from the quality of their work and their professional experience and curriculae, is their common interest in the ecology and their preoccupation for our forests. It is important to mention that these artists agreed to participate in this project principally because of its ecological message.
A full color, bi-lingual catalog covering both the artistic and the ecological aspects of The Forest was printed.

THE FOLLOWING ART CRITICS AND ECOLOGISTS PARTICIPATED:

Mary Schneider Enriquez – Writer, critic, curator.
Alberto Ruy Sanchez Lacy – Director, Artes de Mexico.
Mr. Bill MacKibben – Writer, ecologist.
Dr. Exequiel Ezcurra – President, Instituto Nacional de Ecologia.

This “forest” fashioned by artists shows the many ways in which trees can be forged, using the imagination and a wide variety of materials. The sheer diversity of tree forms bares witness to a healthy creativity, illustrating how each artist is his or her own microclimate, capable of growing previously unknown and unique species. These creations belong to an alternate nature and pay homage to natural trees and their nobility, their fragility and their need for attention. The artist, Naomi Siegmann, who perhaps better than anyone is intimately acquainted with the mysterious relationship between wood and reality, is responsible for the existence of this amazingly creative gathering of trees.

Each piece here is a process which celebrates and underscores the true meaning of trees. Each is a unique and individual being which many cultures consider divine, and which unites the earth with the sky. The Mayan, for example, speak of the majesty of the Kapok as a wooden being who sinks his roots into the sky. In other words, a celestial being who is grounded in the earth. A two-headed being whose heads are also its feet. The tree unites these seemingly divergent worlds yet maintains them apart. And a tree created by an artist deepens the meaning of a bridge between alternate realities.