Gina Siepel

Gina Siepel

  • Projects
    • To Understand a Tree (work in process)
      • Tree and Site
      • Participants and Public Engagement
      • Green Woodworking
    • Cycle of Self-Determination
    • SELF-MADE
    • Re-Surveying Walden
    • The Versatile Queer-All
    • 1 x 1
    • A River Twice
    • The Boy Mechanic Project
    • The Coracles of Pignut Pond
    • The Candidate is Absent
    • CACOPHONY
    • Audubon's Birds
    • Portrait of Audubon
    • After Winslow Homer
    • Emma's Walk
    • King Philip Was a Warrior Bold, Whose Deeds Were Writ in Records Old
    • Historic Site
    • Recursions
  • About
  • CV
  • Writing
    • "Gina Siepel: The Artist as Explorer," by Lauren Lessing
  • Contact
Oak slat-backed chair, 19th century, maker unknown
Reprinted from "American Country Furniture, 1780-1875," Ralph and Terry Kovel

My interest in greenwood chair-making is inspired by its historical connection to the region of New England, and my desire to connect to and critically engage the intimate relationship between colonialism, timber extraction, and furniture making. Green woodworking, which works with wood in its most raw state, using simple hand tools, was traditionally the province of folk craftspeople. It attracted a new audience starting in the 1960's along with the back-to-the-land movement, and I owe my interest in it to practitioners who brought it into the present day, including Jennie (aka JA) Alexander, Roy Underhill, Mike Abbott, Drew Langsner, and more. In To Understand a Tree, the green woodworking process allows me to explore connections between trees, forests, the human body, and the domestic environment.


All images and text copyright 2006-2021 Gina Siepel. All rights reserved.

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