In a furniture/home goods gallery in San Diego I happened on some strangler figs! Undeniably fascinating in a polished form reminiscent of driftwood, they look like models of animal skeletons. While described as "corked vine sculptures" they really are the remains of fig trees which grew in the top of trees which they subsequently asphixiated. The "host" trees remain as a spectral presence, as each of these has a hollow cylindrical core. For these particular figs, their roots and branches lopped off to render them decorative objects, may we say what goes around comes around?
