JoAnn Verburg

Sacred Trees

reception march 6th 6-9pm
march 6th through april 28, 2008

Mason Riddle

When contemplating JoAnn Verburg's expansive photographic oeuvre, one that encompasses more than thirty years of work, her series, the Sacred Trees, is the most haunting, perhaps the most spiritually potent. Less cerebral than many of her subjects, the sacred trees provide an associative, mystical counterpoint for her perspicacious 5 x 7 camera. The sacred trees, themselves, are imposing gnarly beasts that embody the wisdom of a philosopher and the moves of an escape artist. It is impossible not to be mesmerized by their elegant eccentric posture, anthropomorphic roots and soaring canopy, characteristics that Verburg's lens carefully exploits. Unfathomably quiet yet charged with a humid sensual urgency, the forest seems to literally breath from within, its sacred trees move imperceptibly beneath our gaze.

In 1995, Verburg began to photograph the sacred woods of Monteluco, not so far south of Spoleto, Italy, where she and her husband-poet Jim Moore have a small home. Ancient and sublime, the forest was the site of pagan worship and has been pronounced holy for more than two thousand years. Its wood, Holm oak, is believed to be the first tree created by God, and its fruit, the acorn, the first food of humankind. Even in Roman times the forest was considered sacred and it is thought that Saint Francis prayed there. Two tablets dating from 315 BC protect the Basco Sacro with threats of atonement for any violation to its sylvan residents.

As with all of Verburg's photographs, the Sacred Trees images convey a sense of time and memory. She brings forward impressions of a place or event, of which we are only semi-conscious, and reformulates this experience into a visual language that resonates intellectually and psychologically. One has a sense of passage—that something has occurred either just before or after the photograph was taken. This experience is heightened by Verburg's literal focus of the camera's lens, a focus that travels from the picture plane into deep space, a technique that elaborates on the idea of journey and suggests an elusive narrative. As we move through the sacred woods, we are aware that something is just beyond our range of vision, masked by a massive balletic trunk. We understand it is something we will never know, only anticipate; yet, the experience is fluid, provocative and satisfying. The Sacred Trees images are remarkably beautiful. Yet, they resist preciousness or sentimentality because of the notable scale of the work and the exotic dignity of the subject matter.

Ultimately, Verburg's vision sensitizes us to a certain kind of beauty, a way of seeing, that is inextricably linked to the notion of time. It is a vision that informs us that our sense of beauty, of seeing, is not immobile. In À la Recherché du Temps Perdu (In Search of Lost Time), Marcel Proust wrote “true beauty is indeed the one thing incapable of answering expectations of an over romantic imagination.” So it is with Sacred Trees.

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Of the nine Sacred Trees images on view at gallery co, only two have been exhibited locally: in the artist's exhibition, Present Tense, currently on view at Walker Art Center and organized by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and in a 2001 show at The Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The other seven, comprising single images, diptychs or triptychs, are basking in the bright lights of the Twin Cities for the first time.

JoAnn Verburg was born in Summit, New Jersey, and lives and works in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and Spoleto, Italy. Her work has been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions, including Present Tense, organized by the Museum of Modern Art, and running through April 20th at Walker Art Center.

Mason Riddle is a Twin Cities writer who is published widely on the visual arts, architecture and design.