The Work and its Visual Impact
Custody is an installation by the Berlin-based artist duo Studio Exxx, consisting of Christian Kennecke and Jonathan Falk. The work centers on a tree that appears caught within the frame of a swing. This unlikely and almost involuntary placement creates a contrast between the organic presence of the tree and the constructed materiality of the swing itself.
The swing, a symbol of leisure, care and innocence, becomes a site of tension, where comfort and discomfort are held in balance. By embedding the tree in this playful yet restrictive structure, the installation emphasizes the contradictions in human attempts to nurture and dominate nature.
Questions of Care, Control, and Reflection
Presented as part of Studio Exxx’s ongoing exploration of living environments, "Custody" examines the ambivalent ways in which care can also mean control. Rather than offering a didactic explanation or a simple ecological message, the work invites confrontation. It places the viewer in front of a relationship that is simultaneously tender and problematic, raising questions about what it means to “look after” nature while at the same time limiting its freedom. By placing natural and artificial elements side by side, Custody reframes the human–nature relationship as one of dependency, overprotection, and unintended violence. The installation asks audiences to reconsider not only how environments are shaped but also how the very idea of care may conceal acts of restriction. Through this direct yet unsettling image, Studio Exxx opens a space for reflection on the fragile and often contradictory ways contemporary societies approach the natural world.
