Acer palmatum ‘Atropurpureum’

2023

Installation with 7 LED-lights flashing in Morse code in a Japanese maple tree.

The LED Morse code tells the story of a crew in distress after been shipwrecked when the ship exploded between the Canary Islands and Morocco. The crew consisted of my father and his friends.

My father told this story many times while I was growing up. After his passing, the history has changed and new chapters have been added in my imagination and from other crew members. Photographs from the ship's previous voyages are mixed with pictures in my head, both depicting a foreign place and deep waters. Now I wonder what really happened to the crew in the many hours between the explosion and being rescued.

Acer palmatum ‘Atropurpureum’, also known as Japanese maple has red characteristic leaves and is planted as an ornamental plant in southern Sweden. The tree belongs to the family of Chinese tree plants, Sapindaceae and is native to Japan, Korea, eastern Mongolia, China and south east Russia.

The story of the shipwreck is familiar to me and yet, an unsolved puzzle. The tree in the film has a similar alien attitude to its surrounding nature that I have to the story of the castaway.