The square is a prevalent shape in the work of Milah van Zuilen (1998). She gathers bark and leaves in the forest and cuts everything into squares in her studio. She then uses these to create a frame or lattice, resulting in a surface covered in shades of green and brown.
Van Zuilen chose the square because in her view it represents the human presence in the landscape. Ecology is both a source of inspiration and a study topic to Van Zuilen: she is currently pursuing a course in Forest and Nature Conservation at Wageningen University. Drawing on this knowledge, she explains the contradictions in her work: “In the Netherlands many fields are subdivided into tidy, rectangular shapes and forests are planted in straight lines. The human need for order is the reason behind imposing these shapes, without any concern for what is living and coiling in and on the ground. This results in a monoculture.”
At Prospects, Van Zuilen is presenting her largest work made from bark and leaves to date. Its scale references the enormous plots, which can only be perceived properly from the air, resulting from subdividing the land. In plant taxonomy, species are also subdivided into separate boxes, and cartography uses straight lines and grids to indicate the boundaries of the landscape. While Van Zuilen’s work refers to these boundaries and organizational structures, she simultaneously searches for collaborations between species, thus encouraging the work itself to escape this rigidity.
Text: Jorne Vriens
Translation from Dutch to English: Marie Louise Schoondergang