tom shields attaches discarded wooden chairs to forest trees

tom shields attaches discarded wooden chairs to forest trees
all images courtesy of tom shields

sourcing discarded chairs from the garbage, american artist tom shields has attached them onto trees in a forest at the north carolina museum of art in raleigh. the found objects were taken back to his studio, where they were meticulously dismantled and all the joints refit. assembled up forty feet of scaffolding high in the air, thirty-one of the disused furniture pieces were saved from the landfill and returned to their original source: the tree. the project explores the natural life cycle of a piece of wood, eventually the material will rot and fall to the forest floor to decay, completing the cycle. all of the joints were re-glued together with waterproof epoxy and doweled to strengthen the joints. many of the rungs and stretchers appear to pass right through the tree creating the illusion that the chairs are grafted to the trees.

the ‘forest for the chairs’ explores the natural life cycle of a piece of wood

a total of thirty-one disused furniture pieces were saved from the landfill and returned to their original source, the tree

all of the joints were re-glued together with waterproof epoxy and doweled to strengthen the joints

a place to sit and ponder the installation

the wooden chairs will eventually rot and fall to the forest floor to decay, completing the cycle

positioning chairs in the trees 

‘grafting’ detail

scaffolding was used to install the chairs

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.