Laikku’s Oracle (2020), sound installation.

Living tree, contact microphones, amplifier, mixer, speakers.

An oracle relays messages about the future. Visitors may ask the oracle a question; the oracle may or may not answer. The tree is never silent. It makes a sound when the wind blows, when the earth shakes, when water moves through its veins or when birds sit on its branches. A breeze makes the leaves rustle in whispers. A wind makes the branches creak. In high winds, the entire trunk moves, down to the roots, and this makes a sound too. What the tree says is for the listener to determine.