p. 14 - October 2011 | London Edition | FYI Escape AR T IN NA TURE Muskoka Tree Museum will stop you in your tracks


Past a beaver dam the fi rst artwork encountered is Sky Shelter, a 13-metre-long steel sculpture built into the Canadian Shield so as to create a “dialogue between the enormous dense rock and the steel.” This particular piece was created by Toronto based artist E. J. Lightman, a founding member of the Tree Museum. Some distance further on, after viewing many thought-


provoking exhibits, we were stopped in our tracks by John Dickson’s intriguing installation The Outhouse. While an outhouse might not come as a total surprise in such a setting, this one stands out in a rocky clearing. Following its installation in 2007, art writer Dionne McAffee enthused: “I’ve found the treasure: an outhouse constructed entirely from


mirrors. This is a marriage of high and low, reality and illusion, rustic and glitz. Like the Predator of action-movie fame it replicates its surroundings, blending almost seamlessly into the background. On a bright, sunny day it casts brilliant panels of light around itself, like a spaceship.” (Persona Volare in Muskoka – Canadian Art, January 2008).


John Dickson’s intriguing installation The Outhouse stands out in a rocky clearing. (Bob Wood photo) By Bob Wood


This is defi nitely not the tree museum of Joni Mitchell’s 1970 hit Big Yellow Taxi.


It is, in fact, the only sculpture park in a rural setting in Ontario.


The Tree Museum challenges us to understand our current relationship with the environment. Featuring a variety of site-specifi c artworks in an “uncultivated


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environment,” the Tree Museum is located less than seven kilometres from Highway 11 as it passes by Gravenhurst. Begun in 1997, the fi rst exhibits were in place the following year. This past June we slid the car into a small lot off Doe Lake Road and, accompanied by about a million black fl ies, tramped a full kilometre down the rutted trail in search of the museum.


After some challenging footwork over the rocky terrain we fi nd Michael Belmore’s A Displacement. Using white stones imported to the site this work tells the story of the cultural displacement that has been experienced by First Nations people. The Tree Museum contains over 20 permanent and many temporary works. Some of the permanent exhibits are of a “transitory nature” since the elements and nature will determine their life span. A show curated by Earl Miller saw installation in August of Sarah Peebles’ Pollination Wunder Station, Anitra Hamilton’s Territoriality, Ken Gregory’s sunsuckers and other new works by Gordon Monahan and Mike Hansen. Open year round, you should allow yourself at least half a day for


a tour. There is no admission charge. Make sure you pack a lunch and wear shoes suitable for hiking. See thetreemuseum.ca.


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