The Roots of the Stone Pines

“The Roots of the Stone Pines (and other familiar trees)” is a visual study of family, nurture and nature, a holistic ethnography of the severed branches and of the deep roots.

With this project I am creating a narrative around my family and my hometown and exploring the idea of nature vs nurture. As someone that has moved away from the places and people of their childhood, I am interested in questioning how my upbringing still influences me and how much of it I have left behind to create my own identity.

The projects is a way to analyse the consequences of growing up in a specific space and in a specific family, facing the traumas (generational and personal), the unresolved tensions, the mourning and the unsaid.

How deep do the roots run? how tall does the tree grow?

The pines and the other trees, are a metaphor for the stability and safety of the hometown/family, the forest an unmovable codependent community that limits the individual as much as it preserves and grounds it. Some plants do need uprooting to thrive, but what is the cost? What remains of the original soil? What remains in the forest of the eradicated plant?