Created as a public arts piece for the newly renovated Wilkshire county hall in the United Kingdom, ‘Grain' is an installation composed of 15 large oak tree rings meant to show the full range of human life and experiences. The age rings of the tree were highlighted with ink and then sealed with wax, polished, and mounted to the wall on hidden brackets.
Tania Kovat, the artist behind this piece states, “These roundels, with their aged rings, undulating cracks and marks of life, might possibly represent the full range of human experiences, symbolically echoing those rituals, rites of passage and activities processed by a local authority; be they celebratory (for wedding ceremonies or birth certificates); horribly difficult (like registering a death; or even prosaic (paying parking fines or working out how to get rid of bed bugs).”
