Mikiko Noji’s 生きる (alive): A Hyper-Realistic Tree As a Meditation Of Their Grandeur

Japanese artist Mikiko Noji creates large-scale paintings of hyper-realistic trees. In her pieces, she draws every detail of a tree’s bark, stems, and roots. These paintings draw in and tower over audiences, much like a real-life tree would. Her pieces become a testament to a tree’s grandeur, how they have withstood the test of time and grown in such ways to withstand the environment. 

One piece in particular, titled 生きる (alive), won The 9th Higashiyama Kaii Memorial Nikkei Nihonga Award. This piece stands tall at 2.3 x 6 metres and shows a close-up of the tallest point of a tree trunk, right where its branches begin to grow. Noji has purposefully rendered this piece in monochromatic colours, she has made the tree white against a pitch black sky, as if viewers were looking at a film negative of a photograph of the tree. Here, Noji deliberately inserts the presence of an artificial human creation so that her viewers can reflect on how human activity has impacted the lives and longevity of these gentle giants. By doing so, hopefully, her viewers will find a new sense of appreciation for trees, which often go unnoticed. This is why her artwork aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of Life on Land.

Aside from providing life on Earth with oxygen and playing a crucial role in the planet’s carbon cycle, Trees benefit people and the planet. The Nature Conservancy found that proper forest management in the next 10 to 15 years can meet up to 37 percent of the global climate stabilization target. A single forest has also proven to host more than 200 globally rare species of plants and animals.

Yet, despite global leaders from 145 countries having promised to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030, the world is still falling behind on its yearly target. Meaning pieces such as Mikiko Noji’s 生きる (alive) go a long way in terms of campaigning for the conservation and well-being of trees and forests around the globe.

Titling the piece 生きる (alive) with a lower capital ‘a’ is an especially poetic move on Noji’s behalf. Perhaps this is an allusion to the quiet way in which trees live. Never screaming out for attention as capital letters do, and yet still providing so much for itself and its surroundings.

Noji’s captivating painting, 生きる (alive), looms large over its viewers. Its immense size gives audiences space to stop in front of it and take their time to observe its minute details. This gives them the time to contemplate and wander at the marvellous yet quiet lives of these gentle giants. As Noji had portrayed with great meticulous care, trees are indeed natural wonders, wonders whose lives are currently under threat because of human activity.

Find out more about Mikiko Noji’s trees and their other pieces by checking their Instagram on @nojimikiko.