'Disruptions': Art Basel Cities: Buenos Aires

The work of artist, designer, sculptor, and architect Pablo Reinoso is inherently interrogative, designed conceived to question shape, function, and the physical space objects occupy. His large-scale, often functional structures counter their intended purpose by uniting opposites, exploring new paths, and pushing the limits of possibility. In Still Tree (2019), selected for 'Disruptions': Art Basel Cities: Buenos Aires in Miami Beach, an exhibition coinciding with this year's ABMB, Reinoso encases an uprooted tree within a protective iron sculpture, an evocation of the titanic environmental battle against pollution. This metal skeleton functions as a shield for the dead tree trunk and emulates the protective conditions medieval armor offered to the bodies of soldiers. Previously, Reinoso’s paradigmatic ‘Spaghetti’ series (2006) evolved from wooden benches into living branches that could grow, climb, and proliferate with unrestrained freedom. As a reaction to the overuse of nature, Still Tree takes on poignant new dimensions when placed within a state that faces special environmental threats, including to at-risk ecosystems like the Everglades.

Still Tree is presented by Waddington Custot.