Trees can be seen as repositories of memory within the places and communities in which they grow. Artist Olu Ogunnaike treats wood as a marker of possible encounters: between past and present; between people and the spaces we inhabit.

A Good Neighbour? is an artwork in the form of three benches and an elliptic table inspired by the “law of the good neighbour” in which the German-Jewish art historian Aby Warburg organized his library. The system was emphasizing the interconnectedness of seemingly disparate subjects to encourage exploration of the unpredictable. The purpose of the library was to take you somewhere else, sometimes with no access to what you were looking for; you were meant to get a little bit lost.

With a playful approach to this principle, Ogunnaike combines the various tree species found in the Stadtpark with others found growing around the globe; resulting in his handmade pastiche of the industrial material-oriented strand board (OSB). The species of trees used in his OSB benches carry motifs of their original territory composed in a mathematical, overlapping and multiplying system. Ogunnaike is interested in the parallels between humans and trees, tracing the moment a tree is uprooted from one geographical setting and placed in another, where it might be transformed, paired, or multiplied. Those benches carry the power of community, labour, and exchange, and offer the potential meeting of a good neighbour.


Olu Ogunnaike is a Nigerian-British artist living in London.

Location of the work on Google Maps