Jason Dodge is a storyteller. The objects which he creates exude a poetic sensibility that conjures up a background story to each work. Bearing suggestive titles, his works remove everyday objects from their functional contexts, and allude to vague and obscure mysteries and narratives.
Dodge has created four almost identical pieces of wood – identified individually as Apple plank, Ash plank, Maple plank, and Linden plank – for the GAK’s 2011 annual editions. Whether or not these works are in fact fashioned from the materials identified remains unclear, but the similarity of their grains would suggest that they were all cut from the same tree. What should we believe? Our eyes? Or the attached label? In presenting us with this question, Dodge confronts us with our loss; the ability to recognise various types of wood, once widespread, has been lost to most of us and is now the almost exclusive domain of artisans and experts.