Press Release — For Immediate Release                                                     May 24, 2019

Public Art Exhibition: Don’t Look At That Tree
Artist: LG Williams and The Estate of LG Williams™
On View: June 28-June 30, 2019
Location: City Park, Streator, Illinois
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New Local Public Artwork For Streator, IL City Park
Delineates Global Climate Catastrophe Denial

(Los Angeles—June 1, 2019) LG Williams and The Estate of LG Williams™ are pleased to present Don’t Look At That Tree, his newest monumental outdoor artwork installed at City Park in Streator, Illinois.

Don’t Look At That Tree consists of a 100-foot-high hickory tree strewn with several rolls of yellow crime scene tape. Visitors can view the artwork on June 28, 2019 and it will remain visible to the public until June 30, 2019. The artwork will be situated at the intersection of Park and Hickory streets, near the park’s entrance. 

This artwork explores The Mechanism of Denial, a defense mechanism first proposed by Anna Freud which involves an individual or groups refusal to accept reality, thus blocking external events from awareness. “So far”, writes LG Williams, “our response to the challenge of our climate catastrophe exposes a fundamental failure of collective engagement and imagination.” 

Williams’s first monumental outdoor tree artwork appeared in 2013 at Parc du Domaine les Crayères, Reims, France, curated by Baron Osuna. As with other works by the artist, such as Party Down! (1999), How To Explain Art To The Sports Generation (2004), Angelina Jolie Was Here! (2011), and ME (2015), subversive ingenuity is key to the experiential nature of the artwork.

Taken whole, Don’t Look At That Tree speaks to the expanse of art history — from ancient traditions of creating artworks on cave walls, to modern forms of visual culture in the age of apocalypse and cutting-edge feats of artistic digital labor.

The Estate of LG Williams™ would like to thank Baron Osuna, Super Window Project, The Lodge, and The Derazhne-Fridman Charitable Trust for their generous support.
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National Media Kit:  Press Release | Image 01 | Image 02 | 2013 Tree (Reims, France)
Local Media Kit:      Press Release | Image 01 | Image 02 | 2013 Tree (Reims, France)
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Additional Press:
Artist LG Williams will feature ‘climate catastrophe’ artwork in Streator: Idea of the work is to look at bigger issue, by Michael Urbanec, The Times, Michael Urbanec, June 18, 2019, www.mywebtimes.com (Archived) 

Streator City Park tree gets covered in caution tape for conceptual art project, Concept hopes to draw attention to climate catastrophe, Michael Urbanec, June 28, 2019, www.mywebtimes.com (Archived)

WCMY 1430 Radio Interview with LG Williams by Rick Koshko  (6.17.19) — Website  (Archived)
WCMY 1430 Radio Interview with LG Williams by Rick Koshko (6.17.19) — Soundcloud

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The End Of The Party: Geometrie Variable, Parc du Domaine les Crayères, Reims, France, May 17 – June 30, 2013. Curated by Baron Osuna.
Watch the video: click here