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DENDROFEMONOLOGY: A Feminist History Tree Ring

Reclaimed deodar cedar wood sculpture (2022)

60" x 65" x 3" E.V. 4 /4 + 2AP

Framed Large-Scale Photograph

68" x 63" Edition 4/4 + 2 AP

 

 

Inquire about this artwork: art@tiffanyshlain.com

“Realizing I needed to make Dendrofemonology was a big aha moment for me. I grew up near, and still live close to, the oldest trees in the world in Northern California. ​I have always been fascinated by the tree ring timelines at the entrance of Muir Woods and other National Parks — they visualize time and convey the idea that trees are witnesses to human history. But most timelines are so patriarchal and colonialist. I remember the exact moment I was standing in front of that tree ring cross section at Muir Woods in 2021, thinking: I want to see a feminist history tree ring. I need to see that. And I want my daughters to see that. I want everybody to see that.​After over 20 years making films on feminist history, I was excited to distill all that research into the lines that were ultimately hand-burned into wood using pyrography. This feminist history tree ring sculpture was the first piece I made imagining what alternate histories trees could tell. The science of tree ring dating is called dendrochronology — so I called this piece Dendrofemonology: A Feminist History Tree Ring. ​It started a whole new body of work, exploring many different subjects through this lens.”

New nine-minute film about Dendrofemonology: A Feminist History Tree Ring journey that explores the creative process and the ideas behind the moveable monument.

 

The text burned into the sculpture traces feminist history from 50,000 BCE to the present in 32 milestones. Dendrofemonology: A Feminist History Tree Ring debuted as part of Tiffany Shlain's Human Nature exhibition at Shack15 in the San Francisco Ferry Building in November 2022. Since then, the sculpture has traveled as a moveable monument serving as a catalyst way to bring together leaders working to protect & expand women's rights. Places it has been installed include: the National Mall in Washington, DC (November 2023); Madison Square Park in New York City (September 2024); Nancy Hoffman Gallery as part of Shlain's solo exhibition You Are Here (fall 2024); the Women's Art Center of the Hamptons (June 2025); the 21c Museum in St. Louis, where it was included in The Future Is Female alongside works by Mickalene Thomas and Carrie Mae Weems for a year long exhibition (2025 to 2026); and di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art as part of Ancient Wisdom for a Future Ecology: Trees, Time & Technology (January–April 2026), where a special event with Speaker Pelosi marked International Women's Day on March 7, 2026.

 

The most recent installation is Seneca Falls, NY May 8-9, 2026 for the "Right to Run" city-wide celebration and now on view at the National Women's Hall of Fame museum until September 30th, 2026. It will then travel to Texas for the midterms.

Highlights from the moveable monument journey so far:

National Mall in Washington, DC Nov 1-4, 2023​

You can read a chapter Tiffany wrote about the artwork and its installation on the National Mall in D.C., titled You Are Here, in a book on women’s leadership by Dr. Nancy O’Reillyavailable here.

Madison Square Park, NYC Sep. 21, 2024

A Feminist History Tree Ring at 21c Museum Opening from July 15th, 2025 in Hamptons.

Read more about The Future Is Female exhibition at the 21c Museum in St. Louis, where my sculpture, Dendrofemonology: A Feminist History Tree Ring, was installed alongside works by many of my favorite feminist artists.

21c Museum Feminist Gathering in STL on October 8th, 2025.

An Afternoon of Feminist Art & Action on the Eve of International Women's Day March 7, 2026 at di Rosa SF Museum with Speaker Pelosi

Dendrofemonology in Seneca Falls, NYC for weekend city-wide celebration Right to Run, May 8 & 9, 2026

Other Museum Installations and Special Events​

 

A framed print edition of the work has been exhibited separately, including at the de Young Open at the de Young Museum in San Francisco (September 2023 to Jan 2024) and in the Artists for Kamala benefit auction (October 2024).

Artists For Kamala

 

A framed photograph of Dendrofemonology was auctioned off for the Artists for Harris Art Sale. Other artists included Cindy Sherman, Jeff Koons, Judy Chicago, Simone Leigh, Amy Sherald, Deb Kass, Richard Serra, Jenny Holzer, Ed Ruscha, and more.

 

Artists for Kamala opening, October 2024.

PRESS

​​"Feminist art gains momentum with new exhibits and national tour." MSN

 

 

"Dendrofemonology in Seneca Falls, New York." Surface Magazine

"Tiffany Shlain’s Feminist Art Answers the ‘Urgent’ Call to Fight for Democracy and Women’s Place in History." 

Ms Magazine

 

 

"Temporary monument brings a feminist timeline of history to Washington, DC’s National Mall." The Art Newspaper

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"At the National Mall, Artist Tiffany Shlain Is Rewriting Women into U.S. History" ~ Ms Magazine

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"Feminist Tree Ring is a Moveable Monument Which Has Become a Visual Locus for Galvanizing Collective Action in Feminist Interventions" ~ White Hot Magazine

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"Feminist Tree Ring Stands Tall on the National Mall" ~ Print Magazine

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"Dendrofemonology A Feminist History Tree Ring on the National Mall" ~ Surface Magazine

"At such a pressing time in American politics, the following few artists and organizations are stepping up to guide this delivery of decisive power." Art, Currently

Dendro Timeline

 

Dendrofemonology timeline text burned into the wood with pyrography:

  • 50,000 BCE Goddesses are worshiped. 

  • 10,000-3000 BCE Women are healers, shamans, and warriors. A number of societies acknowledge multiple genders.

  • 3100 BCE Literacy develops, and seeds of patriarchy spread.

  • 2400 BCE Mesopotamian law declares: “If a woman speaks to a man out of turn, her teeth will be smashed in by a burnt brick.” 

  • 200 BCE Goddess worship is forbidden in Judaism, and later, in Islam and Christianity.

  • 690  Wu Zetian becomes the first—and only—female ruler of China.  

  • 1100 Matrilineal and matriarchal Hopi tribe establishes the community of Oraibi in present-day Arizona.

  • 1450 to 1918 50,000 women tortured and executed as witches across Europe and America.

  • 1576-1610 Queen Amina rules over Zazzau (present-day Nigeria).

  • 1690s Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz becomes the first published feminist in the Americas.

  • 1776-1860s Abortion up to four months of pregnancy is legal in the United States.

  • 1880s Inspired by indigenous and abolitionist leaders and British suffragists, first-wave feminism gains momentum in the United States.

  • 1920 19th Amendment grants US women the right to vote, although most women of color are disenfranchised until the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

  • 1920 The Soviet Union legalizes abortion.

  • 1960 FDA approves birth control pill in the United States

  • 1960 Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka) becomes the first woman to be elected to lead a democratic country.

  • 1962 Dolores Huerta co-founds US National Farm Workers' Association.

  • 1960s Second-wave feminism begins with leaders including Dorothy Pitman Hughes, Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Flo Kennedy, and Shirley Chisholm.

  • 1963 First woman in space Valentina Tereshkova flies a solo mission and orbits Earth 48 times.

  • 1972 Title IX prohibits gender-based discrimination in US federally-funded educational programs and activities.

  • 1972 The US Senate approves addition of the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution. (The states have not yet ratified it.)

  • 1973 Roe vs. Wade legalizes abortion in all US states and territories.

  • 1974-1980 The Combahee River Women’s Collective calls out the interconnectedness of sexism, racism, and homophobia, and demands change in mainstream feminism and civil rights movement.

  • 1975 Icelandic Women’s Strike held to protest inequality in the workplace and the home. 90% of women participate, and 15 years later Iceland elects a woman president.

  • 1989 Kimberlé Crenshaw defines the concept of intersectionality and ushers in third-wave feminism.

  • 1993 Women allowed to wear pants on the floor of the US Senate.

  • 2006 Tarana Burke begins #MeToo movement.

  • 2016 Hillary Rodham Clinton receives the majority of votes in the US presidential election.

  • 2017 An estimated 5 million people attend Women’s Marches globally. #MeToo goes viral.

  • 2017 Oregon becomes first state to include non-binary gender category on IDs.

  • 2020-2022 US elects first female Vice President Kamala Harris and first trans State Senator, Sarah McBride; Ketanji Brown Jackson becomes first Black woman confirmed to  Supreme Court.

  • 2022 

  • Roe v. Wade is overturned, eviscerating federal protection of reproductive rights in the U.S.

  • Globally, 65 countries have legalized abortions, four in the last year.

  • Globally, 86 women have been elected president or prime minister to date…

  • Today:

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