Das Tannenboot
1994

Das Tannenboot is a visual pun derived by combining the German word for Christmas tree (Tannenbaum) with that for boat (Boot). Das Tannenboot is a Christmas tree, stripped of its needles, turned on its side, and then outfitted with little sails and rigging. The resulting work defies easy description. It is delicate, strangely beautiful, and yet—with its mass of barren branches and sails like dead leaves—somewhat melancholy. Laid out horizontally, the conical symmetry of the fir tree creates a mirror effect above and below the stem that suggests a fantastically inefficient flotilla sailing across a body of water, or a useless structure that is nearly all sail and no boat. Yet despite these illusionistic or metaphorical possibilities, the work is absolutely literal: in the end, Das Tannenboot is exactly what it says it is—a tree-boat.