Mapping the Impact – Stefania Urist

This glass sculpture maps the topography of a stump as a metaphor for the impact humans have on the environment. Stefania Urist, the artist, modeled this work after a stump she discovered in Winterthur’s stump pile on the outskirts of the grounds during her time as a Maker-Creator Research Fellow in 2019. Urist explains, “The human hand is evident in the scattered and saw-cut limbs and trunks that litter this mass grave of trees. Although many of these stumps and logs were collected from trees that were intentionally planted, the remains of these trees speak to human involvement in the change of natural habitats, deforestation, and the cycle of life and death.”