IMG 7007-001-Exotic Tree 1

Cass Sculpture Foundation, Goodwood, West Sussex.

Set within a wooded glade Exotic Tree by Zadok Ben-David creates an illusory sense of the fantastical or mysterious. Tiny, silhouetted figures are just visible within the boughs of the three-metre tall steel form. Part of the artist’s series of Innerscape sculptures, which play upon the idea of worlds existing within a larger subject matter, the work addresses imagination, the realm of dreams and the relationship between man and nature. The use of corten steel is an example of Ben-David’s habitual employment of materials that visibly weather. Inspired by the natural world, the sculpture responds to its surroundings, changing colour with time. In the artist’s vision, the natural world becomes a metaphor for human nature, the tree a symbol of our escapist childlike desires and how they are perhaps incompatible, yet eternally enchanting within our realities.