Understanding the Complex Relationship Between Industry and Nature through Maelstrom by Roxy Paine

Maelstrom 
Image by: Ciro Miguel

Beautiful paintings can leap off of a page, but sculpture can create a real, tangible object that beautifully replicates cultures and beliefs. Roxy Paine’s Maelstrom illustrates this beautifully. Maelstrom’s dendroids, created from stainless steel hollow tubes, form a 130-foot-long sculpture (Volk). These industrial pipes create a connected web thin enough that most adults can walk through yet thick enough to make it a daunting task. Paine’s dendroids represent artificial nature—natural forms rendered with unnatural materials. These natural synthetic representations reflect how human beings view nature vs. urbanization.

These dendroid forms clearly imitate a leafless, deciduous tree, but rather than calling them trees, he named them “dendroids.” Dendroid sounds mechanical, robotic, and much more intricate than “tree.” This new title spruces up the sculpture and adds a new level of intrigue to Maelstrom. When asked about the name for his silvery sculpture, Paine said, “I wanted to illuminate the complex, constant collisions among dendritic structures, man made circulatory systems, buildings and factories (David).” This new title highlights relationship between each of these.

Similarly, calling his creation Maelstrom creates a sense of a powerful, torrential whirlpool. Now, instead of depicting multiple knocked over trees, Maelstrom creates a feeling of impending disaster. After just adding this title, the sculpture becomes a juxtaposition of creation--the natural regeneration of plants and ecosystems--and destruction--the forest destroyed by a massive storm. Discussing his sculpture, the artist said,

by: Chris Gladis

“I think in these more recent works, of which Maelstrom is an example, I’m really throwing those restraints away; I’m pushing outward on those boundaries and this language that’s set up, and I’m just less interested in restraint right now.” (Rosenbaum-Kranson)

Paine's lustrous creation depicts the unbridled power of nature and industry, and displays the results of these two together.

When viewing from the inside and from a distance, Maelstrom becomes two completely different structures. Viewing from Central Park, this sculpture would appear to be a web of connected, shiny pieces and parts (Volk). It would appear as a network of silver veins and arteries, an above ground macro-view of fungal mycelia, a tree destroyed by a storm, or anything the imagination can formulate. Paine’s clearly tree-like structure lays on its side instead of being erect, some cataclysm having knocked it out of the ground through extreme force. This choice of posture conveys a sense of the weight of industry knocking the tree down. The view creates an image of a brilliant disaster. While all of these many facets evoke images of the natural world, Paine has crafted his dendroids out of industrial metal, relating his entire piece, and its natural beauty, to industry. The earth grows large oak trees, beautiful flowers, and vast ecosystems while human beings build large skyscrapers, concrete jungles, and impressive monuments.

Maelstrom is comprised of many small, but important dimensions. From its center, the metal pipes construct a labyrinth-like formation. Up close, the branches and trunks are awkwardly curved, dented, and scratched. It’s painstakingly apparent that the parts were welded together to create the massive steel structure standing on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Volk). Parts of the piece are thick, like tree trunks, while in others are so thin that they’re no thicker than a toothpick (David). These strategic deformities take a perfect looking, fallen tree and make it more realistic. In some places, the artist left the markings that denote the weight and size of the pipes used in the sculpture (Rosenbaum-Kranson). A real, living tree doesn’t look perfect but instead has grooves, misshapen branches, and many other unappealing features. For this zoomed-in view, Paine takes those natural blemishes and makes them industrial by using scratches and dents. He means to connect his very beautiful, cold sculpture with the living, natural world.

Viewers walking through Maelstrom 
Image by: Rob Zand

Paine’s sculpture overlooks Central Park, New York City (Volk). Its massive size functions as a means to draw the eyes of onlookers, capturing the attention of those living in one of the most well-known urbanized areas in the world. The inhabitants of enormous cities such as these could easily feel detached from the nature. For those who may go days without seeing grass, a sculpture like Maelstrom has the capacity to act as a powerful reminder of nature’s importance and the beauty that it provides. In a similar way, the beautifully crafted silvery form shows that, like much of the impressive architecture found in cities, industry can create beautiful structures.

Maelstrom’s many pieces and parts lend it the opportunity to make multiple claims describing the relationship between the environment and people’s urbanization and industrialization. The steel tree could tell one viewer that as a species, human beings have begun to overcome the environment through urbanization and resource consumption. It could say to another, industrial materials have the ability to create beautiful works of art, as displayed through architecture. To a third person, the maze-like structure causes them to reflect on the destructive, yet wondrous powers of industry and the natural world. The truly beautiful part of this sculpture is not that it makes a statement but that it begins a discussion, welcoming any and all perspectives. Its prodigious size and gnarled, interesting shape demands attention that leads to a greater awareness of how human beings live alongside the environment.

Neuron 
Image by: Anneheathen

There are many more dendroid installations, also created by Paine. Just some of the others include, Imposter, Conjoined, Inversion, Graft, Neuron, and Askew. These sister sculptures exist in locations across three continents. Imposter stands alone, surrounded by a forest of living trees, its steel structure masquerading as one of them. Conjoined is two dendroids standing at the same height, their branches almost magnetically connected at their tips. Inversion takes the form of an upside down tree. Neuron is a silver ball with branching structures stemming from its center and flowing out in all directions. Each of these sculptures contribute to this idea that nature and urbanization are connected. (Gupta et al.)

None of Paine’s dendroid exhibits have any concrete meaning, just as he intended it. In an interview with Museo Magazine, Paine identified himself as a Robert Gober fan (Ewington). The Art Monthly Australia Journal described Gober in these terms:

“...he looks at everyday life in America and sees it skewed; and he invites us to follow him into his work without promising any straight answers.” (Ewington)

Paine never assigns just one meaning to any of his sculptures, instead he invites his viewers to, literally come inside his sculpture and form their own thoughts and ideas about it. His sculptures create an awareness and a new style of thinking that, without his dendroid reminders, would never enter the minds of many people today.

Paine’s dendroid series--while mostly up for interpretation--does convey one definite idea, that in many ways nature and industry share many similarities. Industry is a version of nature processed by human beings. People shape natural materials for their needs and this usage has been increasing in recent decades. Paine does not claim this as a good or bad thing, but rather reflects the importance of human awareness concerning these topics. In today's world industry and urbanization thrive. Where sculptures were once created with marble or other types of stone they are able to be made with metal (Bradley). With mass relocation into cities, the importance of the environment and industry has increased in art and other social media outlets. Paine attempts to remind these city dwellers of the beauty of nature and industry and that they both should be met with admiration.

This unique dendroid series, namely Maelstrom, offers its viewers some serious food for thought. Its many convoluted pieces create a web that displays the connection between urbanization and nature in a way that asks more questions than it answers. Through its myriad of both beautiful and intellectual ideas, it inspires each viewer to draw their own conclusions about natural and industrial relationships.




Citations


Bradley, Mark. “The Importance of Colour on Ancient Marble Sculpture.” Art History, 32:

(2009) 427–457. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8365.2009.00666.x.


David. "Roxy Paine’s ‘Askew’ Dendroid at NCMA." New Raleigh. N.p., 8 Oct. 2009. Web. 09

Nov. 2015.

Ewington, Julie. “Robert Gober’s ‘The Heart Is Not a Metaphor.’” Art Monthly Australia (May

2015): 14-17. Print.

Gupta, Kevin, Boesky, Marianne. “Roxy Paine.” N.p. N.d. Web. 09 Nov. 2015.

Rosenbaum-Kranson, Sarah. “Roxy Paine.” Museo Magazine (2009). Web. 15 Nov. 2015.

Volk, Gregory. "Roxy Paine." Art in America. N.p., 10 Oct. 2010. Web. 09 Nov. 2015.