Purification of Fagus sylvatica var pendula: the hooded apparition on top of the stump of the oldest Weeping Beech in America. The leaves on the cloak were taken from the stump’s seven encircling progeny. Photo: Janette Beckman, 2001. See Edition
Purification of Fagus sylvatica var pendula: the glass still is assembled and pipe connections are made to the still’s dispensing bulb. Photo: Janette Beckman, 2001.
Purification of Fagus sylvatica var pendula: the figure touches the secondary chamber of the still, prior to placing the smokestack in position. Photo: Janette Beckman, 2001.
Purification of Fagus sylvatica var pendula: one name is attached to each of the seven living beech trees. Photo: Janette Beckman, 2001.
Purification of Fagus sylvatica var pendula: Silicon tubing is woven through the undergrowth, sequentially connecting all the glass names, thus forming a circuit with begins and ends with the still. 2001 Photo: Janette Beckman
Purification of Fagus sylvatica var pendula: a pump circulated water through the names of the Pleiades; this is the cooling agent for the still. 2001 Photo: Janette Beckman.
Purification of Fagus sylvatica var pendula: with a lighted taper in hand, the figure ignites the smoke buoy and oxygenates the furnace by blowing air through a pipe, 2001 Photo: Janette Beckman
Purification of Fagus sylvatica var pendula: the distillation required delicate orchestration. The figure monitors the quantity of smoke entering the still, the heat, the flow of water determining the degree of cooling, and the transference of the distillate into the central chamber for secondary refining 2001 Photo: Janette Beckman See Edition
Purification of Fagus sylvatica var pendula: pavilion housing the glass still and the equipment used in the performance; installed in Weeping Beech Park, Queens, New York, 2001. See Books
Purification of Fagus sylvatica var pendula: the borosilicate glass still taken before the performance, 2001.
Purification of Fagus sylvatica var pendula: the borosilicate glass still, 2001.
Purification of Fagus sylvatica var pendula: the figure removes the names of the Pleiades from the seven living beeches and repositions them around the mother stump, adding to each star’s name its astronomical coordinates. The second circulation of water now takes place between the pavilion and the mother stump 2001 Photo: Janette Beckman See Book
Purification of Fagus sylvatica var pendula: an engraved beechnut from this historic tree encapsulated in a crystal of guiacole artificially induced from the distillate garnered from the original performance, 2001.
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ABOUT PURIFICATION OF FAGUS SYLVATICA VAR PENDULA (2001)
Purification of Fagus Sylvatica Var Pendula is a performance and installation documenting the transformation of the smoke of the oldest weeping beech tree (Fagus sylvatica var pendula) in North America into a preservative agent.
The site for the project was the historic Weeping Beech Park in Queens, New York, a small intimate garden on the grounds of Kingsland house.
Regrettably, the stump is all that remained, as shortly after this venerable tree’s sesquicentennial in 1997, it died and had to be cut down. The tree had, however spawned seven progeny, which still grow in a circle around the original beech.
The series of photos and film describe the first stages of the distillation: a leafed apparition, using a specially constructed glass still and smoke buoy, attached seven glass names to the seven existing beeches circling the original mother stump, the names are those of the Pleiades, the seven daughters of Pleione and Atlas: Alcyone, Celaeno, Electra, Maia, Merope, Sterope, and Taygete. By circulating water through these names an antiseptic distillate was obtained from condensing the smoke.
The second stage took place in a specially constructed pavilion. Over a two-month period the liquid distillate underwent a purification process, yielding a crystal of guaiacol, a derivative of creosote seeded around an engraved beechnut. After the leafed apparition had extracted a quantity of the antiseptic distillate, the still was allowed to cool and the seven glass names adorning the seven trees were removed from their trunks. The glass names reappeared, installed around the girth of the parent stump accompanied by their precise star co-ordinates on June 1, 2001, the day the performance took place.
During the crystallization, as the distillate was circulating through the star co-ordinates, it accumulated around its "seed," in this case a beechnut. It formed an insulating blanket, preserving the life seed of this historic American treasure Crystallization is a purifying process: by using the saturated solution to adhere to a "seed" (like a grain of sand in an oyster), a pure crystal maybe obtained, as the solution will always seek to sequester itself and accumulate, as mother of pearl is layered upon itself to form an ever-larger pearl.
This project was a direct response to the site, a homage to this historic tree, the ephemeral nature of the crystal growing, and layering of mythology. See Editions The Purification of Fagus Sylvatica Var Pendula. LINK ANCHOR - BLUE BOOK Published by Coracle/Granery Press New York.
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