“This particular piece was about making a comfortable place in the midst of a city—to be surrounded by trees while being in the middle of a city,” says David Jacob Harder, an artist originally from the Quesnel area. His Standing Split sculpture invites viewers to enter inside the piece itself and experience it from within.

“From the outside it looks like an architecturally-designed space,” he says. “And in the interior you are surrounded by the bark of a fir tree allowing solace in a place of anxiety.” Harder milled a single fir himself, a skill he no doubt learned as a result of growing up rurally, the son of a logger.

 

“My personal dialogue changed so much when my father was paralyzed by a tree falling over him while at work,” he explains. “It showed me the ways in which our interactions can have the most profound effect on our future and how a place where you can feel very comfortable can also give you great anxiety.”

 

Part of a larger body of work, exploring our connections to the forest and calling on his personal history, Harder’s Standing Split sculpture will be on display at Two Rivers Gallery, in Prince George, until spring 2018.

 

Check out more of his art at davidjacobharder.com

  — Matt J. Simmons