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Artist Anya Gallaccio - Research & Evaluation



Anya Gallaccio, British artist who creates site-specific, minimalist installations. She often works with organic materials resulting in a natural transformation as a result of decay. This results in Gallaccio’s installations being unpredictable in their end result. The start of Gallaccio’s exhibitions are somewhat pleasurable, fresh fruit, chocolate, scented flowers this inevitably becomes displeasurable over time.  As a result of this Gallaccio’s work “challenges the traditional notion that an art object or sculpture should essentially be a monument within a museum or gallery.” the installations live on in memory of those that were present of those that saw and experienced it  as well as the concept itself. 

Focusing on That Open Space Within which saw Gallaccio fill a small gallery with a section of a horse chestnut tree which had died. This piece really consumes the open space as though the building was built around the tree rather than the tree being placed within it. It gives the impression the tree is still alive, still growing as thought it may break through the windows at any moment.  At a closer look the tree has had its limbs removed and re-pinned, held in place by ropes. This was unavoidable if the tree was ever going to fit into the gallery. “These accoutrements give an impression of Frankenstein’s monster, brutally rebuilt and harnessed”  All limbs taken from the same organic form, thus creating an allusion that the tree is as whole. However this would only be believable from a distance which isn’t possible due to the size of the gallery, therefore forcing the audience to witness it as a reconstruction of a tree. “The bolts extend way beyond the surface of the wood—like pins in a fractured limb—and the ropes hold it in traction within the space. There’s no illusion there, and I’m not trying to disguise the artifice of the reconstruction.” The reconstruction to me symbolises the struggle of man trying to rebuild nature after them themselves destroying it. The busy city scape outside juxtaposing the tree inside the gallery only emphasising how we admire nature but in the end are destroying its own beauty. “Whether deliberately intended by the artist or not, it feels difficult not to see the work in political terms, as a commentary on the increasingly bleak proclamations that are emerging about our environmental future.” thus linking back to the work of Beuys, looking at how we are destroying nature and how we should be treasuring it.


The tree gives a feeling of nostalgia, memories of country walks yet this tree is being presented in a gallery in the middle of London. By using the middle section of the tree it gives a sense of being up in a tree, bending and climbing over the branches to get around. 

I find this piece extremely inspiring, I intended to try some reconstruction of plants in this way, linking back to my engineering background. Being around nature to me is like being at home, its where I feel the happiest and I really want that to show through in my work. 




That open space within





Research Used -


  • https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/anya-gallaccio-2658 
  • http://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/currentexhibitions/anyagallaccio/
  • https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-36639402 
  • https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/turner-prize-2003/turner-prize-2003-artist-anya-gallaccio



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