BlogBack: Joe Thompson on Horticultural Horrors

The director of MASS MoCA, Joseph Thompson, gives his tongue-in-cheek retort in the tortured-tree controversy:
As you might imagine, we had that debate! In this case—one in a hundred, I assure you—the curators lost and I won, and instead of replacing the trees with a new work (as Nato [Thompson] and Susan [Cross] argued we should, taking your side), we rejuvenated. We renewed.
The trees have become something of a landmark. It’s where our patrons take their snapshots of MASS MoCA, and many of our prospective visitors ask if the trees they’ve heard so much about are still up. So the brand manager in me raised his ugly head.
And besides, they are not being tortured, they are being liberated: How can you not realize that all trees aspire to have their roots freed from the cloying, smothering earth?