Slide Images

1 - Tree Series No. XI, No. 4, 2004
Oil on mylar
206 cm x 107 cm
81 in x 42 in

2 - Tree Series No. XI, No. 5, 2004
Oil on mylar
206 cm x 107 cm
81 in x 42 in

3 - Tree Series No. XI, No. 3a, 2004
206 cm x 53.5 cm
81 in x 21 in

Tree Series No. XI, No. 3b, 2004
206 cm x 53.5 cm
81 in x 21 in

Tree Series No. XI

Safdie's Trees are a collection of essences of the tree - it's implicit context within and its seperation from, nature; its shortness, or tallness; its fragility and resilience; its rootedness; its upward thrust; its formal attributes; the terrible power of the trunk, the fleeting nature of leaves.... These are 'Everytrees' and yet, each is intensely different from the other, each rises unique in the landscape of the artists's imagination. These trees are at once timeless and time-specific, embodiments rather than representations. Their mysterious quality, their transience, their reflections, have long inhabited Safdie's work in her search for the phenomenal in a vast array of kindred forms.

   - Irena Murray, 'The Testimony of Trees: Meditations on Art and Nature with Sylvia Safdie and John Heward', Burlington City Arts, 2004.