Artist Creates An Exact Replica of a 140-Year-Old Tree

This life-sized sculpture of a giant tree known as Middle Fork is not just any tree—it's a specific tree from a forest near the Snoqualmie River in Washington State. Seattle-based artist John Grade and his team spent two weeks in April 2014 making plaster casts of the chosen tree, which were then transported back to the MadArt studio space in Seattle. There, hundreds of volunteers worked with individually-shaped wooden blocks to create a giant lattice to match the exact shape of the tree.

The completed sculpture is currently on display—presented horizontally—in Seattle, but will go on tour in May 2015. After two years on tour, the sculpture will be returned to the tree that inspired it and laid on the forest floor to be mossed over and become part of the landscape.

Check out this video on the making of Middle Fork.

Middle Fork - MadArt from John Grade on Vimeo.

[h/t LaughingSquid]