Inserted amidst Nissan’s design studios and boardrooms, this courtyard offers a long slot of open sky that unfurls like a picturesque parkway vanishing into the distance. We reinforced this impression by suspending a canopy of branches overhead, which casts ever-changing shadows on the ground. However, the sensations of travelling under a forested promenade are defied as the gaze turns upward: the branches are cast in fibreglass and painted sky-blue. Blue Forest thus challenges conventional preconceptions of nature, while intensifying the perception of light and colour.

When the Detroit studio closed its doors in 2009, Nissan was unwilling to part with its Blue Forest.  The installation was dismantled from its outdoor courtyard in Detroit and re-installed – partially indoors – near San Diego.  The aura of nature that this artificial forest had acquired outdoors in Detroit became a curious gesture in California that was perceived as bringing the outside indoors.