Study of The Last Tree No. 6

Name/Title

Study of The Last Tree No. 6

Entry/Object ID

2022.10.1

Description

An image of a bucket, with a tree stump coming out of the top of it. The stump and bucket have four long roots coming out of it, which stretch down towards the bottom of the image.

Collection

HCC Permanent Art Collection

Made/Created

Artist Information

Artist

Babs Reingold

Role

Artist

Date made

2013

Time Period

21st Century

Location

Category

Storage

Category

Exhibit

Exhibition

In their Own Words

Interpretative Labels

Label Type

Didactic

Label

Considering the intersections of poverty and climate disaster, Study of The Last Tree No. 6 is part of an installation that imagines a world where humanity has devastated the Earth’s natural resources in the pursuit of greed. A tree stump sits in a metal pail, roots slumped over the edge and reaching from holes in the sides into nothingness. Reingold asks of the work, “Will it matter in the end? Who knows? I mean, we may never be around, humanity may not be around. Earth will still be here, and finally it'll recover by the time we're gone, and there'll be some other new age that will appear. But meanwhile, we're still here and it means something to us.” The stump, lonely and desolate, serves as a call to action. Who is left to care for the last tree, and what happens if we don’t?