Bente Skjøttgaard
Green Root (2005)

Denmark’s oldest tree, Kongeegen (the King Oak), is estimated to be at least 1,500 years old. Anyone who has stood before this tree in Jægerspris Nordskov will have felt overwhelmed by the knowledge that it germinated during the Viking Age and grew as the Danes abandoned the Old Norse religion and embraced Christianity. The King Oak is hollow; micro-organisms have long since begun the decomposition process. Today, only the outer shell is still alive, conveying water and nutrients from the roots to the leaves. The tree seems at once dead and alive, or perhaps its long branches stretch far beyond such a limited categorical mindset, like a strange, crooked myth.

Green Root resembles something. Something from nature, transformed into a ceramic object. Green Root is quite recognisable as a match for the title. It looks like the part of a large, old tree where the trunk transitions into the root. As such, it joins a long line of vessels from ceramic history. It is a close relative of a wide range of objects resembling anything from pumpkins to cauliflower. Most of the objects that come to mind for me, however, are bulging organic shapes that confirm the exuberant feeling of bursting with vitality. Here, we are heading into a darker place.  

Green Root is roughly modelled, and Bente has allowed the traces of her fingers pulling on the coarse clay  to remain, without additional finishing. Had it been a drawing, it would have been done in charcoal, rough and dirty. The outer form is only slightly abstract, perhaps modelled on a concrete root she saw in the wood? But it is constructed as a thin shell, as if only the bark remains. The inner form follows the outer, as if the object we see has been hollowed out. It seems as if the dissolution has already transformed the dense tree trunk into a cavity. Green Root has a thick green glaze that melts and flows over the coarse clay surface, causing edges and small protrusions to appear darker and more visually prominent. The glaze looks almost like a living substance, a wet layer of mosses and algae that is now metabolising nutrients from the dying form to generate new life. The decay has a heavy, swampy sense of pleasure and desire. Remember: you are fortunate enough to be mortal. (GJ)