<The Tree of Life> 生命之树

The tree of life is a widespread myth or prototype in the world. What surprises me most is that its root covers a wide range of space and period. Rooted in a variety of civilizations, it shows a unique symbolic meaning.

I made investigations on thirteen countries and religions with the legend of life trees. I made a world map of the trees by graphing 16 trees according to the description of the written materials and the related sculptures, paintings, murals as well as inscriptions.

At the beginning, I started from the tree worshiping culture and clarified it from three perspectives: the worship of water in the East, the legend of Eden in the West and the symbol of heaven. I also made three books by hand with different styles (I made a simple video for them, which is at bilibili).

I found such this classification is not direct enough after conducting a lot of research. In order to better present the unique culture, I re-extracted the key information and made this book. The circle symbolizes the long time cycle like tree rings and every page bears certain extent of a culture. In my eyes, the sulfuric acid paper is a good media to show the sense of space. I followed my original idea to make it by hand and used the technique of screen printing, since I think it’s the best way to reflect the texture of the civilization.