The artwork features a loblolly pine genetically engineered to overproduce resin, which defends the tree against pests and other pathogens. The pine was developed by a biotechnology lab in Florida that sought to commercialize pine resin as a source of renewable energy. However, it turned out that modifying the pine’s immune system threatens to drown the tree in its own protective toxins. The lab’s work has come to a halt due to the unpredictable consequences of releasing such an organism into the wild.

In January 2020, Goldin+Senneby persuaded the lab in Florida to release one of their genetically modified pine saplings for the first time. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved a “containment area” in the home of fiction writer Katie Kitamura in Brooklyn. Since then, Kitamura has been living with the modified pine and working on a novel that tells its story. When the permit expired after five years, the pine was devitalized as prescribed and the remains were cast into a block of pine resin.

Crying Pine (2025) was first exhibited in the exhibition Flare-Up at Accelerator, Stockholm.

Further Reading

Arrhenius Hagdahl, Nora. ”System Failure”, Kunstkritikk, March 18, 2025