Glasses on a Tree

“Glasses on a Tree” is a conceptual artwork that plays on the idiom “can’t see the wood for the trees,” emphasizing humanity’s short-sighted view of the environment. By placing glasses—a symbol of enhanced vision and clarity—directly on a tree, the work suggests a paradox: we attempt to scrutinize, analyze, and manage nature with magnified precision, yet we often miss the larger ecological picture.

This piece critiques our tendency to focus on individual elements—species, data points, resources—while ignoring the broader, interconnected health of ecosystems. The glasses become a metaphor for a distorted kind of vision: one that amplifies detail but blurs context. In doing so, the work highlights how environmental policy and action often suffer from immediacy and self-interest, rather than long-term thinking and holistic understanding.

Ultimately, “Glasses on a Tree” is a quiet yet provocative call to refocus—not just to see more clearly, but to see differently.