Up to Now Paul Tuppeny 2022
Chestnut, suspension wire
1100cmH x 150cmW x 150cmD

“[t]he nature of a thing…is a certain principle and cause of change…and is directly present in it”
(Aristotle Physics II/1/192 b20, pg33Waterfield translation.)

The sculpture sets out to hold in a single object the life and ‘nature’ of a felled tree. It begins at its base as a slim, green shoot, steadily widening in girth as it grows taller, finally terminating at its top with the horizontal cut that ended its life. This is a tree as we know a tree rather than as we see one; it is held as a living, growing, changing organism, but one of finite duration. The phenomena by which we understand a tree’s growth are aligned in a single upward vector which acts, in turn, as a spatial expression of the passage of time.
The piece has developed from ongoing PhD research at Chelsea College of Art into our experience of the phenomenon of ‘age’ in the objects that constitute our environment.

Up To Now (Concept)

In recognising a tree, our perception “pairs” the plant before us with what we know of trees as living, growing and finite organisms. Husserl believed that these ‘recollections’ are co-presented as an integral part of the percept. The sculpture represents this part of the perceived tree, the part that is not actually there.

Up To Now holds in its form our assimilated ‘nature’ of a tree, starting at the ground as a slim shoot, steadily increasing in girth as it grows in height until the moment of its felling, marked by the horizontal cut at its top. The age phenomena of height and girth are aligned along an upward growth vector, expressed and animated by the realigned branches which continue to grow  towards the sky.