Mutual Gravity

Time & Cycles

Permanent installation artwork for Vancity Cedar Hills Community Branch, Surrey, BC, Canada
layered papier-mâché
9’ × 9’
2015
installed at the Vancity Cedar Hills Community Branch

Structured in the shape of a large cross section of a tree, Time & Cycles references the original giant red cedar trees that once adorned the slopes in this neighborhood and for which the Cedar Hills community branch is named. The artwork reminds us of our relation to the natural environment.

Time & Cycles is created using a papier-mâché technique, with thousands of pieces of newspaper and old Vancity brochures.

The artwork manifests metaphorically and artistically a cycle returning back to itself: from wood growing in a forest, to becoming wood pulp, then being processed into paper on which news and brochures were printed and shared with people until finally returning to its primordial shape of a cedar log.

Time & Cycles symbolizes connections: between different cultures, between people and nature. Pieces of shredded newspaper, hundreds of fragments of stories and news from local newspapers in different languages are turned into the temporal graphics of a tree’s growth rings. This is a visual representation of getting stronger each year by embracing the power of many.