Artist Simon O’Rourke redefines what it means to call a tree a “palm” with his monumental sculpture of a hand growing out of a tree stump.
The sculpture, titled Vyrnwy’s Big Hand, is 50 feet tall and spins right before your eyes. The sculpture’s central pillar is a tree, but as you look up it loses its bark and transforms into the skin of an arm, culminating in the creases of a palm and fingers. With this change, it’s as if a giant is trying to claw his way to the surface of the Earth.
Stages
O’Rourke said that he was thrilled by the opportunity to carve the enormous palm tree and make it a local monument. Also, he details the preliminary studies that sparked the procedure. When he finally located the grove of trees (locally referred to as “the Giants of Vyrnwy”), he was inspired to carve a gigantic hand into one of them as a memorial to the giants and the tree’s futile struggle to touch the heavens.
It takes dedication, hard work, and skill to create something as impressive as this. O’Rourke says that the terrain was so tough that he needed a scaffold to make it safe for him to work on, and that erecting the scaffold took two days. A gruelling six days of labour ensued, during which time chainsaws and grinders were heavily utilised. As the tree wasn’t quite wide enough, he planned to supplement it with two thumb and little finger pieces.
O’Rourke finished the sculpture by covering it in tung oil, a natural plant-based oil that is safe for the environment.
O’Rourke found the process to be instructive, and not just because the final product was a work of art. While working on the sculpture, he realised how insignificant humans are in comparison to other species on Earth. He said, “All in all, a humbling experience!”
Sources:
https://cebudailynews.inquirer.net
http://www.successlifelounge.com