tom shields attaches discarded wooden chairs to forest trees
all images courtesy of tom shields

 

 

 

sourcing discarded chairs from the garbage, american artist tom shields has attached them onto trees in a forest at the north carolina museum of art in raleigh. the found objects were taken back to his studio, where they were meticulously dismantled and all the joints refit. assembled up forty feet of scaffolding high in the air, thirty-one of the disused furniture pieces were saved from the landfill and returned to their original source: the tree. the project explores the natural life cycle of a piece of wood, eventually the material will rot and fall to the forest floor to decay, completing the cycle. all of the joints were re-glued together with waterproof epoxy and doweled to strengthen the joints. many of the rungs and stretchers appear to pass right through the tree creating the illusion that the chairs are grafted to the trees.

 

 

tom shields attaches discarded wooden chairs to forest trees
the ‘forest for the chairs’ explores the natural life cycle of a piece of wood

 

 

tom shields attaches discarded wooden chairs to forest trees
a total of thirty-one disused furniture pieces were saved from the landfill and returned to their original source, the tree

 

 

 

tom shields attaches discarded wooden chairs to forest trees
all of the joints were re-glued together with waterproof epoxy and doweled to strengthen the joints

 

 

tom shields attaches discarded wooden chairs to forest trees
a place to sit and ponder the installation

 

 

tom shields attaches discarded wooden chairs to forest trees
the wooden chairs will eventually rot and fall to the forest floor to decay, completing the cycle

 

 

tom shields attaches discarded wooden chairs to forest trees
positioning chairs in the trees 

 

 

tom shields attaches discarded wooden chairs to forest trees
‘grafting’ detail

 

 

tom shields attaches discarded wooden chairs to forest trees
scaffolding was used to install the chairs

 

 

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.