Rodney Graham & Max Porter: Trees

British author Max Porter weaves a heady tale around Graham's black-and-white prints of solitary, upended trees

To commemorate Rodney Graham's (1949-2022) 15th show with Lisson Gallery, this "accidental novella" contains author Max Porter's brief responses to the artist's large-format Oxfordshire Oaks photographs. Although known primarily for his books Shy (2023) and Grief Is a Thing with Feathers (2015), Porter is also a trained art historian. His brief interpolations reference Graham's self-portrait light boxes, which channel many different voices and disguises, connecting the artist's mercurial uniqueness to the endlessly branching marvels he depicts in nature.