Askew

*Askew* is part of a series of works by Paine that he describes as “dendroids”—arboreal or treelike forms with elaborate branching structures. Paine’s sculptures are hybrids in more than one sense of the word, inspired by “real” trees but never truthful depictions of actual species. His human-made versions of natural elements blur the boundaries between nature and culture, natural and artificial, handmade and machine-made. Paine has described his work as a “collision of the industrial world with the natural world” and an exploration of the human desire to order and control nature. The stainless steel surfaces of the work change dramatically with the light—mirroring, absorbing, and reflecting the tree’s environment and turning the colors of the natural world into a brilliant metallic light show.