On a seasonal residency in 2014, sculptor Alex Johnson spent six months to carve a giant brown oak stump into a piece of work, which was on display at the Alde Valley Spring Festival. Such carving works are common and have a long history in East Asia, especially in China, many giant tree stumps are collected and carved according to its natural texture and shape into tea tables or chairs, where it’s also named “tree root carving”, a successful root carving piece is on the base of artistic imagination combined with natural material, judgment, thinking and technology.
