Thirteen original canvases by seven artists, commissioned for 1000 Trees, Heatherwick Studio’s tree-topped complex on Shanghai’s Suzhou Creek. Curative assembled the roster and produced the program with Longmen Art Projects.
1000 Trees is Heatherwick Studio’s development on the banks of Shanghai’s Suzhou Creek, a mixed-use complex built to look like a pair of tree-covered mountains. Hundreds of structural columns rise through the building, each topped with a planter, so greenery steps up the facade instead of hiding behind it. Work commissioned for a place like this does not decorate a lobby. It enters a landmark of contemporary architecture.
In partnership with Longmen Art Projects, Curative commissioned seven artists and oversaw the creation of thirteen original canvases for the complex. This is a curatorial and production credit rather than a single-object one: assembling the roster, coordinating the artists and the program, and delivering the finished works into the space.
It is the same widened relationship that Childlike Wonder would later take further, a group of artists brought together under one commission, on the other side of the world, with Longmen as the fine-art partner on the ground.
The seven commissioned artists were Aaron De La Cruz, DABSMYLA, Fanakapan, James Haunt, Persue, Pose, and OG Slick. Thirteen canvases spanned their range, from graphic line and lettering to character-driven pop, each an original work made for the building rather than a print hung after the fact.
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