Arbor Erecta        
                       
                       Artist: Sonya Rapoport



(Above)Arbor Erecta, Web artwork, 1998. at users.lanminds.com/~sonyarap/arborerecta/arbor.html

(Photos of trees courtesy of Emily Goldberg)


In 159 A.D., the Greek physician Galen declared God created plants as a provision for the health of human beings, and left a sign on them---some feature of their shape, color, habitat or behavior---for human beings to decipher. As an example, he pointed to a plant shaped like an ear that is a cure for earaches.



(Above) Detail from Arbor Erecta


Arbor Erecta, a botanical concept for masculinity, illustrates this ethos. In this piece, the transsexual change of James Green from female to male is fancifully interwoven with New Guinea initiation rites of tree bonding. As James grows from his female body into that of a male, he re-enacts the New Guinea tribal rituals that purge the female pollutants acquired from the mother.

Sonya Rapoport, 6 Hillcrest Court, Berkeley, CA 94705, U.S.A.

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                            | past exhibitions |

                       
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