16 April – 3 July, 2011
This exhibition attempts, through exploring works of art in a variety of domains, to highlight what forests mean to the people of today’s world, when the workings of human civilization are erasing so many forests from the face of the earth.
Forests are humanity’s home, treasure chests of life resources, and much more: sacred places, the dwelling places of the supernatural. Through the human mastery of agriculture and animal husbandry, however, we have become responsible for those forests’ dwindling destiny, their loss. Yet that may be why we also feel a certain nostalgia for the forest and have tried to etch our impressions of it, the man-made mark of the forest, upon our art, religion, and culture.
This exhibition included 180 works of art, photographs, craft objects, picture books, and other artifacts through which to reassess the forest itself from new perspectives, to think about its beauty and delights, its meaning and import.