I arrived at _______ (a big box store which will remain anonymous) in time to see a large portion of their garden department empty. blank isles were lined with curious cement block pyramids ready for the 2011 shipment of Xmass trees. . .my timing was perfect to document one season of our most conspicuous consumer symbols -- the Xmass trees. They arrive in mass to the market and then disappear. we create whole temporary forests growing in parking lots, which we ritualistically tear down, only to have crop up again next year.
for a few januaries in a row, I noticed a mountain of dried up Xmass trees piling up behind _____ (a different big box store which will remain anonymous). I made a note of this--wanting to document it some day. we live through this incredible annual public process of cutting, marketing, selling, bringing into our homes, and then throwing away "evergreen" trees. given a new context of greater Earth awareness (weather change, earthquakes, volcanoes, deforestation, ozone depletion, etc, etc. . . ) this major american tradition reveals some important aspects of how our relationship with nature is f-cked up. perhaps this is a tradition that needs to be secularized and twisted into an act which upholds society's new respect for trees, plants & forests . . . instead of repeating a blind ritual which unconsciously instills the disappearance of our beloved natural environment. ( yes, it's an outrageously idealistic proposal. . .but not entirely impossible )
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