Temporary outdoor wonder has been created based on the work made in collaboration with Ole and Hauke Ziessler for Blackout Basel in 2015.
Trick or Tree is a combination of dead tree trunk, branches and old Slovak-German dictionary. Built in Kalga, Himachal Pradesh in 2016 during amazing Kyta residency program:
https://sheikspear.wixsite.com/kyta
https://sheikspear.wixsite.com/kyta/home-community
The mechanical sculpture was destroyed shortly after it was built, by local ever-curious and ever-hungry passerby cows.
What has surprised me the most about Kalga, soon after arrival I have realised that there is no suitable wood I can work with. Apart from random dried out branches, to find dead trees in the forest that surrounds Kalga was nearly impossible. Not only because trees are way above human scale (two to three people can hug an average size trunk), simply local people are still using wood to fire up their ovens that they use daily. So while in nearby forests of Basel there was a lot of material to work with (say, we spotted some dead trees from a highway and found a way how to drive to them) areas within transportable distance around village were completely clear of any dry dead wood.
I haven't had a single thought before going to Himalayas that this could be the case.
At the end, the only tree trunk by far was this fellow, tiny-tiny compare to the trees he was surrounded by, yet it took 8 grown up guys to carry it few hundred meters down the muddy Kalga pathway (yes, there are no car roads there, no trolleys either, locals use donkeys to transport heavy things like bricks).
Heaven on earth, where human creations seems so minuscule and nature rules over all.