Because of its occurrence at “wet” locations such as streams, swamps and peatland, the alder tree holds a fixed position in myths and legends. For her installation made from porcelain clay and called ERL (2024), Juliane Tübke took impressions of alder wood which turns red when cut. This work focuses on the question of how the returning water resulting from rehydration would affect the landscape and the alder forest on the drained Ryck meadows in Greifswald. At first, the alders would drown due to fluctuating water levels, only to sprout again afterwards. In their flesh-like colour and dynamic form, the sculptures speculate on the shape of the “new nature” after a possible rehydration, in which the pieces of wood and bark promise a future past their end. (...) Ulrike Gerhardt

Images: CHROMA

Because of its occurrence at “wet” locations such as streams, swamps and peatland, the alder tree holds a fixed position in myths and legends. For her installation made from porcelain clay and called ERL (2024), Juliane Tübke took impressions of alder wood which turns red when cut. This work focuses on the question of how the returning water resulting from rehydration would affect the landscape and the alder forest on the drained Ryck meadows in Greifswald. At first, the alders would drown due to fluctuating water levels, only to sprout again afterwards. In their flesh-like colour and dynamic form, the sculptures speculate on the shape of the “new nature” after a possible rehydration, in which the pieces of wood and bark promise a future past their end. (...) Ulrike Gerhardt

Images: CHROMA