Saturday, December 6, 2008

'Big Wheel' Paris, France 2002/2004



'Big Wheel' Installation View
Artist: Christopher Casanova
Place des Invalides, Paris, France 2004

In 1999 a wind storm named Lothar swept through France, knocking down tens of thousands of trees in forests surrounding Paris. That winter, following the storm, I began to work with fallen trees in the forests north of Paris. The tree trunks that I used for 'Big Wheel' where from the Forest of Fontainebleau. Each of the thirteen pieces were spliced together with a blind square stub tenon to form the ring measuring over three meters in diameter.

'Big Wheel' Installation View
Artist: Christopher Casanova
Place des Invalides, Paris, France 2004

The majority of the wood work was done in the forest with hand tools and the final fitting done in my atelier in the 5th. The wheel fit together and came apart with relative ease and was first assembled as part of an solo exhibition at the Galerie Ortille Fourcat in the 4th arrondisment. Two years later it was reassembled in the gardens of the Place des Invalides, where it remained as a semi-permanent guerilla installation.

'Big Wheel' Installation View
Artist: Christopher Casanova
Galerie Ortille-Fourcat, Paris, France 2002

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