Christopher Dufala
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"Bending Not Breaking"
Site Specific Installation
Maximum Security Cell
Old Montana Territory Prison Museum, Deer Lodge MT

The identity of a tree may have a multitude of projected meanings: a symbol of inner strength, power, new life or the promise of rebirth. In “Bending Not Breaking” I use the dead limbs and trunk of a discarded and dissected tree, reassembled and fabricated to the likeness of its former self. The new tree, reconstructed inside the confined space of a prison cell, has been coaxed into its new environment, seemingly bent, twisted and forced into a space it was never meant to fit.