Günther Uecker is a constant commentator on the problems of the world and an unwavering fighter for understanding and change. He confronts things that bother him with openness and responds in his own artistic language. With his "Trees" and "Forests", he addresses the theme of the vulnerability of man and nature. Under the title "Kunstpranger" (Art Pillory), he created his first tree sculpture in 1983 by nailing an elm tree at Galerie Brusten in Wuppertal. The idea was born in the fall of 1983, when Annelie Brusten happened to notice the forest workers in the park marking the 80-year-old elm tree. She learned that the ill tree was to be cut down and burned. Annelie Brusten brought the already well-known "ZERO" artist and art academy professor to Wuppertal. In his speech at the opening reception of the exhibition, Uecker decried the destruction of nature by man and declared the nails to be the "armor" with which he has "scaffolded the tree, made it strong". Further works, most of the multi-part creations, followed. The first “Nail Forest” from 1984 is at the Nationalgalerie in Berlin today. What all these works have in common is that Uecker equipped the sometimes smaller, sometimes larger tree trunks with a defensive crown of carpenter's nails and used a healing ointment consisting of ash and glue to close the tree's wounds. In the series of "Trees" or "Nail Forests", Uecker follows the basic principle of his artistic work, the theme of the fragile relationship between man and nature and the destruction of the foundations of human existence. [SM]