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Gravity-Defying Sculpture Carved From A Single Tree Trunk

Jan 4, 2019 | 12:45 PM

Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!

schrodinger's wood

Canadian artist Maskull Lasserre hand-carved his latest work “Schrödinger’s Wood”—now retitled “Study of Cord Progression”—from the giant trunk of an ash tree. Starting the process on the 13-foot-tall behemoth of a tree trunk with a chainsaw, he eventually whittled his way down to what looks like just a few fibers of rope keeping the tree together.

Once he had removed most of the material he didn’t need, Lasserre worked with smaller electric saws and grinders before finishing his work with small knives and chisels. The delicate carving is displayed suspended by a chain fall above a gallery floor. Its massive weight seems impossibly held up by the carved rope.

Wood-whittling has long been featured in the Ripley’s collection, with Robert Ripley himself purchasing a number of wooden masterpieces. He was thrilled by the amount of skill an artisan could demonstrate with a penknife!

These intricate carvings seem like unsolvable puzzles. In fact, many of the examples in Ripley’s Odditoriums around the world were carved from a single piece of wood, just like Lasserre’s own sculpture.

From conga-dancing dogs and bicycling ballerinas, to hair-raising feats of strength and death-defying motorcycle stunts, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! A Century of Strange! is sure to delight readers of all ages. With over 1,200 weird-but-true stories from around the world and 256 pages of wild and wonderful photography, this year’s collection of all things odd is not-to-be-missed.

Source: Gravity-Defying Sculpture Carved From A Single Tree Trunk