notes.husk.org/likes images.

Tacita Dean, Majesty, 2006

I’m not sure what influence, if any, Ed Ruscha’s 1971 book of palm trees isolated by white paint (or maybe Wite-Out) had on Dean’s 2006 series. In jpeg form, these overpainted tree photographs can look similar. But the choice of tree species meant more painting for Dean and you can see the background through the gouache. Dean’s oaks are massive, three meters tall, whereas even the pages from Ruscha’s book maquette are the size of piece of paper. I’ve seen both and though the Dean is mostly photograph, it feels like a painting; you can get up close and experience abstraction in the branches.