Little Trees

I love buildings and their architecture. I often visit museum exhibitions featuring architectural models. The University of Michigan Museum of Art presented an exhibition in May 2009, “Museums in the 21st Century: Concepts, Projects, Buildings,” which highlighted the preeminent trends in international museum architecture across four continents. In exploring the exhibition, I was taken by the diverse styles of the architectural models, particularly their tiny trees. Some were literal tree representations, some abstract blobs and geometric shapes, all with varied materials of wood, wire, metal, and transparent plastic. I find these little trees delightful, and marvel at the dimensions they add to building models’ overall look. The music of Little Trees is played with fingertips and hands—save the last sound heard—in order to reflect the delicacy and intimacy of lovely, tiny, model trees.