Trees have been both material and subject matter in several Chelsea exhibitions recently, but none have included sound and smell in the inviting way that Meg Webster’s ‘Thicket’ does at Paula Cooper Gallery. Visitors hear birdsong recorded at an old-growth forest in New Jersey and smell the scent of greenery before even entering the main space to discover ‘Thicket,’ a large, spiraling form made of branches and foliage cuttings. Positioned at the center of the gallery, basking under the gallery’s skylights, the structure recalls Richard Serra’s inviting steel spirals but situates the feeling of enclosure in a natural environment. Like Robert Smithson’s famous piles of earth deposited in a gallery, there’s a disconnect between the material brought from outside and the white-walled exhibition space that gives the installation an aura of strangeness and wonder. (On view in Chelsea through July 24th).
