Trees grow old. Structures hold what they built brings together two found and situated elements: transparent bags filled with apple juice placed directly on the floor, and a suspended aerial photograph of the artist’s family home.
The apple juice is produced from apples harvested in the most recent season from trees planted by different generations of her family. These trees are part of the landscape of the Zabergäu region, where orchards and small meadows are shared, inherited, and maintained over time. Stored in transparent plastic bags with concealed openings, the juice becomes visually ambiguous. The bags register as mass, pressure, and volume, appearing intact yet fragile and soft yet charged with the possibility of rupture. Placed directly on the floor, they intersect with the movement of visitors and require careful navigation, creating an awareness of proximity, vulnerability, and shared responsibility.
Nearby, suspended by a transparent nylon thread, hangs an aerial photograph from the early 1960s depicting the family house built in 1938 and later remodelled by subsequent generations. The image comes from a once common commercial practice in which private homes were photographed from the air and offered to their owners without commission. A neighbouring construction site was manually retouched to present the property as complete and undisturbed. As the colours faded, the retouched area gradually re-emerged.
Framed in wood but not resting against the wall, the photograph remains suspended in space and viewable from all sides. On its reverse, cracks and tape hold the image together. Responsive to air currents, it sways slightly and never fully settles.
Together, the suspended image and grounded containers articulate different modes of holding and preservation. The photograph proposes permanence as something elevated and stabilised through representation. The juice bags contain a material record of planting, harvesting, and processing across generations, sustained through a thin membrane and continuous care. Both point to the ongoing labor required to maintain coherence, continuity, and form, understanding stability as the outcome of sustained attention and responsibility.