The series Fraught Times – 11 cast stainless steel trees in total – began in 2008 for the inaugural exhibition of Pilar Corrias Gallery. The very first tree, entitled Fraught Times: For Eleven Months of the Year it’s an Artwork and in December it’s Christmas (October) (2008), stood on its own at the center of the gallery space. Each tree in the series is unique. The trees are titled after 11 months of the year excluding December, when the object stops being perceived as an artwork and becomes, in actuality, a decorative Christmas tree. Philippe Parreno pushes our perceptions of an artwork to the point of paradox, in constant evolution. Fraught Times is a play where the object is affected by the seasons: not self-sufficient, its meaning changes according to specific spatial, temporal, situational contexts. The art object is a hybrid. Fraught Times: For Eleven Months of the Year it’s an Artwork and in December it’s Christmas (July) is the largest, most hyperreal tree from the series, physically retaining the delicacy of the pine needles of a real tree. Over 100 decorations adorn this tree making it completely different in design from the others.
