Shiki I x Underwater, Azuma Makoto, 2015. Images courtesy the artist
The serene art of pruning and sculpting bonsai trees is transported to extreme environments in "botanical sculptor" Azuma Makoto's series, Shiki: Landscape and Beyond. A five-foot-tall "timeless pine tree" eschews tradition by resting suspended in a steel frame, rather than resting in a pot or vase like generations of its predecessors. Not only that, but Makoto has spent the last ten years bringing this rebellious flora, named Shiki I, all around the world and putting it in places no bonsai would normally go.
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Makoto's work is a new take on landscape photography, sculpture, still life, and portraiture, juxtaposing his living subject with run-down architecture, frigid arctic environments, and scorching deserts. The living sculpture's journey around the world reached new heights last year during a project called Exobiotanica, in which the artist sent it into space on a weather balloon.
SHIKI I x Space, 2014
The Shiki I sculpture's exposed roots and handmade resin leaves make its life seem precarious—wouldn't they be safer in some earth somewhere? But only once the tree escapes the ground, which can sustain bonsai trees for decades, is it possible for it to sail through the sky, dive under water, and soak up the desert sun.
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