Ethan Murrow

THE GREENHOUSE

The Greenhouse is contemporary artist Ethan Murrow’s newest site-specific installation. Consisting of three drawings – a panoramic wall drawing and two smaller scale framed drawings – The Greenhouse explores the theme of human impact on the landscape.

Created by Murrow and a team of assistants over seven days, using high flow acrylic in paint pens working directly on the gallery walls, this panoramic wall drawing spans 75 feet of the Cahoon Museum’s Trustees Gallery and draws inspiration from old growth forests that once existed on Cape Cod.

The primary subject of The Greenhouse is a massive felled oak tree, a cautionary reference to the effects of colonization and development on the Cape’s natural environment. In a testament to nature’s resilience and regeneration, the dead tree plays host to sprouts of new growth. A hybrid treehouse/greenhouse (perhaps an earlier failed attempt to utilize the tree, perhaps a sign of new human intervention) has windows looking out onto a vast green landscape, creating a potential vision of a hopeful future.

Murrow explains that this installation is “an homage to the massive oaks that once stood on Cape Cod before being cut wholesale. This massive drawing is intended to be a testament to the ability of plants to outlast the invasive actions of human hands.”

Partnered with the large-scale wall drawing in The Greenhouse, Ethan Murrow created two new color drawings centering around an unusual figure engaged in open-ended activities. Where the large-scale wall drawing has an optimistic view of new growth and cyclical repair, these other drawings are intended to stand as cautionary tales and uncertain narrative beginnings.

Gambler and Interloper feature a mysterious character scrambling through the woods, juggling massive terrariums of rare plants, including bonsais. The artist leaves the story and the figure’s intentions open; his unknown role could be that of a thief, protector, irresponsible gardener, or thoughtful propagator.

“A common theme in my work is theft and appropriation,” Murrow says of his drawings. The artist explains, “there are connections in some of the ways journalists and I look at the world and at the kind of things we look at—ideas about the American dream, imperialism, and expansionism. But the tone and outcomes are different. Reporters have to take a factual approach to storytelling. I like to compile the facts and data and the experiences around us and then take total license. Their goal is to be objective. Mine is to be both funny and fantastical.”

The Greenhouse encourages discussion and optimism about how human beings can preserve and restore natural habitats and coexist in balance with nature. Murrow asks us, “How do we use and abuse resources? How can we work closely and collaboratively with plants to build sustainability?”

When creating an installation, Murrow researches his subject, gathers source imagery, and determines how his concept will relate to the physical space. In The Greenhouse, he used the image of a felled tree as a strong horizontal line that serves as a unifying compositional element, working with the perspectival lines of the wooden beams above in the clerestory ceiling. The drawing is a memorial to the mighty oak, and even though the portrayed tree is no longer living, its presence is so massive that it commands the room. The placement of the oak in the middle of the gallery walls is intentional and refers to the central role of this species in the New England and Cape ecosystem.

As one follows the span of the tree from root to top, a narrative unfolds. The base of the tree explodes into pieces; according to the artist, it is almost as if the tree is “mouthing off” in anger. Small gadgets prop up the trunk of the tree and upon closer inspection, tiny plants and moss are visible- signs of new growth. Towards the top of the tree, wooden walls that look like the inside of a treehouse or new construction provide an intriguing visual clue and invite the viewer to imagine what this built space is or was used for.

At the conclusion of this exhibition, the entire scene will be painted over. Much like the life of the tree represented, this work of art is transitory. Part of Murrow’s collaboration with the Cahoon Museum involves a donation of native trees to the museum or a partner organization on Cape Cod. In this way, while the artwork will come and go, the artist’s intention to help restore and rebuild environmental balance remains and some aspect of The Greenhouse will continue.