Why Is Tom Price So Important To Pp Trees?

Year 1 Semester 1
Name: Ailish Allen
K Number: K00195516
Choose an artwork, design or other artefact from any time in history which has informed your studio project ‘What If?’ Using the questions provided write a brief discussion of the piece. (This piece may be for an example a garment, painting, print, sculpture, installation, piece of ceramics, photograph, animation or example of graphics design)
Word Count: 548 words
Tutor: Breda Lynch
Date: 27th October 2014

Tom Price – PP Trees
Tom Price is a British designer who draws on his training in both sculpture and design to create beautiful pieces of furniture and installation pieces such as PP Trees (2011). (Price, www.tom-price.com, Unknown)

Figure 1: PP Trees
Industry Gallery, Washington DC, Meltdown series exhibition, November (2011) [image online] available http://www.tom-price.com/pp-tree [accessed 12th October 2014]

The installation is made entirely from polypropylene pipes and nylon cable ties.
(Indaba, 2011) The trees are large and fill the entire space creating a fairy-tale like world in a dilapidated small room. The plastic creation does not give a realistic interpretation of what a cherry blossom grove may look like but rather evoke the feeling of being there amidst the beauty. The piece reminds me of a stage set, you can almost imagine some of the fairies from A Midsummers Night Dream frolicking around amongst the plastic tubing. The ambience of what could be perceived as a decaying room with crumbling walls and cracked concrete flooring room changes with the billowing and bending trunks and canopying blossoms that leave beautiful dappled shadows on the
walls.
The room in which it is displayed both echo and contrast the materials used.
To create his installation he used special tools to heat the plastic tubing so that he could then bend and twist each pipe individually into the desired shape. (Magazine, 2011) The blossoms were made from thousands and thousands of sections of pipe that were cut and then arranged on a specially constructed hot plate and partially melted on one side. (Magazine, 2011) This is a similar method that he uses in making his melted rope chairs which also a part of the meltdown series. The sheets of blossoms are what makes this installation really special. Though they are made entirely from polypropylene pipes and cable ties, the delicate play of light encourages us to look beyond the manmade object and embrace the beauty of nature. ‘It’s partly about the material and what can be done with it, but it’s also intended as an observation of our understanding and acceptance of beauty,’ Tom once said in an interview ‘There is a certain irony in representing something so natural and ephemeral with a material that’s manmade and has a very long shelf life.’ (Parafianowicz, 2011)
The installation was created to pay homage to Washington DC’s iconic cherry trees as he was inspired during a visit there during the cherry tree festival and it filled an entire room of D.C. 's Industry Gallery. (Magazine, 2011)It also plays a dual purpose in also questioning our relationship with and attitudes towards plastics. (Price, www.tom-price.com, Unknown)
The installation (site specific) was created in 2011 and as a modern piece of work it reflects our society today. The longevity and ready availability of the industrially manufactured materials used to construct the installation stands in stark contrast to the ephemerality and natural beauty of the cherry trees. (Dubai, 2014) We see decay and something undesirable this piece will never change or grow old and fall apart. It is eternally beautiful. This an achievement that many of us grasp for. We too use manmade materials to try and stay beautiful forever. The stage also has this ability to immortalise us. “If a writer falls in love with you, you can never die.” – Mike Everett

Works Cited
Dubai, D.
D. (2014). www.designdaysdubai.ae. Retrieved from http://www.designdaysdubai.ae/programme/public-programme-2014/friday-21-march-2014/pp-tree/
Indaba, D. (2011, November 24). http://www.designindaba.com/. Retrieved from http://www.designindaba.com/articles/creative-work/cherry-lane
Magazine, D. Z. (2011, 11 22). www.dezeen.com. Retrieved from http://www.dezeen.com/2011/11/22/cherry-tree-by-tom-price/
MAgazine, D. Z. (2011, November 22). www.dezeen.com. Retrieved from http://www.dezeen.com/2011/11/22/cherry-tree-by-tom-price/
Parafianowicz, L. (2011, November 28). www.frameweb.com. Retrieved from http://www.frameweb.com/news/cherry-tree-installation
Price, T. (2011). www.vimeo.com. Retrieved from http://vimeo.com/51748044
Price, T. (Unknown). www.tom-price.com. Retrieved from http://www.tom-price.com/about

Bibliography
Dubai, D. D. (2014). www.designdaysdubai.ae. Retrieved from http://www.designdaysdubai.ae/programme/public-programme-2014/friday-21-march-2014/pp-tree/
Indaba, D. (2011, November 24). http://www.designindaba.com/. Retrieved from http://www.designindaba.com/articles/creative-work/cherry-lane
Magazine, D. Z. (2011, 11 22). www.dezeen.com. Retrieved from
http://www.dezeen.com/2011/11/22/cherry-tree-by-tom-price/
MAgazine, D. Z. (2011, November 22). www.dezeen.com. Retrieved from http://www.dezeen.com/2011/11/22/cherry-tree-by-tom-price/
Parafianowicz, L. (2011, November 28). www.frameweb.com. Retrieved from http://www.frameweb.com/news/cherry-tree-installation
Price, T. (2011). www.vimeo.com. Retrieved from http://vimeo.com/51748044
Price, T. (Unknown). www.tom-price.com. Retrieved from http://www.tom-price.com/about