Cecilia Danell (b. 1985) The Canopy Bearer

The artist places us in a dense forest landscape of dark and verdant greens, a thicket of wilderness anchored around a central tree trunk. In forest ecology, ‘canopy’ refers to the upper layer formed by mature tree crowns. We do not look up to this sky cover though, but remain positioned at a juncture where the forest floor cuts horizontally across the picture plane, giving us sight of tree
roots and a cavernous undergrowth beneath. The artist invites us to look deep into this underworld, but equally sends our attention back to the picture surface with the conspicuous application of violet, pink, blue and brown strips of paint running vertically down the canvas.

Danell’s practice is process-based, where accumulated research into landscape and the psychology of place is coupled with a strong interest in materiality and making. The Canopy Bearer speaks to the importance of the individual tree as a host for diverse flora and fauna above and below ground, as well as the capacity of art to move us between real and fictional worlds.