2018 Root and Branch, Family Tree

Geraldine Pilgrim was commissioned to make two responses to the Chippendale collection. In the Terrace Gallery, Root and Branch depicted a tree growing through a bare-wood, Chippendale-style chair tilted at an angle. An original Chippendale chair was placed nearby. In the Courtyard, Family Tree was its companion piece; a tree growing through a four-poster bed with the names of Thomas Chippendale’s family tree displayed in small brass plaques and woven into the bed base. Both works aimed to remind the viewer that even the grandest pieces of gilded and painted furniture started life as a tree.