[ISEA2012] Artist Talk: Shannon Lee Castleman – OF WOOD, TREES, PEOPLE and DNA ALONG A JALAN JATI

Artist Statement

Shannon Lee Castleman will discuss her role in the Migrant Ecologies Project, an interdisciplinary collaboration about the memories of wood, trees and people. The project, as initially conceptualized and lead by Lucy Davis, combines artistic, scientific, ecological and public educational objectives that can be negotiated through this singular research project. Jalan Jati (or Teak Road) traces the historic, material and poetic journeys of a teak bed, found in a Singapore, back to the location in Southeast Asia where the original trees may have grown. Jalan Jati brings together cross-cultural natural histories, micro and macro arboreal influences as well as DNA timber tracking technology.