Zvia Dover

Come, Sit

Side Table/ Stool

Inspired By:
Shel Silverstein’s, The Giving Tree

Solid wood
Metal
H18” L16” W15”

Even the most generous tree in the world can give and continue giving up to a certain limit.

Until it is all over, and its branches and leaves, fruits and stem are no longer there, and have all gone; anyone who has read Silverstein’s canonical book knows that. Just as anyone who has ever worked with wood knows, and in fact everyone who lives out of awareness of the environment and nature recognizes that a tree can only give this much.

The trees, nature, mother earth and the earth itself can only give up to a certain limit, and from there, nothing can be given anymore.

In this piece of furniture I wanted to express my pain, and my longing, that we as human beings can help and provide support to nature, trees, animals and plants that we have destroyed and continue harm daily, all year, without thinking about them or our real needs and desires.

I work with a raw material that is uprooted and torn apart by the forces of nature: strong winds coming from the ocean are full of destructive energy, like little apocalypse. Sometimes broken nature needs the compassionate hand and the iron support, to repair the narcissistic and selfish hit relationship that humans have managed and are managing with the environment. My pain and hope, and my endless love for nature and the land, led me to create this piece of furniture.

Though often perceived as a positive piece about generosity and giving, The Giving Tree is a painful story depicting reciprocal neediness between two entities forcefully clinging to each other throughout their lives.

The tree and the boy interact with one another often—with the boy egocentrically seizing all he can from the tree. And as with codependent relationships, the tree sacrifices its’ existence by submissively complying to all of the boy’s requests.

Both the boy and the tree are stuck in this loop, one they do not escape, until the very end of the tree’s ultimate sacrifice.