Mark Primack at Metropolitan Exchange

THE TREE CIRCUS OF AXEL ERLANDSON, a talk by Mark Primack Thur. Jan. 15th at 6:00 p.m at MEx (Metropolitan Exchange) 33 Flatbush Ave. 6th Floor, Brooklyn. Between 1922 and 1963 a California farmer, surveyor and orchardist named Axel Erlandson designed and trained trees into sculptural and architectural forms unique in horticultural history. Axel expanded that ancient science to include chairs, towers, ladders, spiral staircases and enclosures that could be grown, rather than built. He eventually displayed his creations in a roadside attraction outside of Santa Cruz, which he named the Tree Circus. Mark Primack discovered Erlandon's neglected and dying trees in 1977, shortly after completing his Masters thesis on Botanic Architecture at the Architectural Association of London. His efforts to document Axel's work, to write their history, and to protect and preserve the surviving trees were themselves fading into obscurity when his friends at the Museum of Jurassic Technology convinced him to present, in words and images (many for the first time) his remarkable record of a dedicated visionary and a creative genius.