Elsa Mora’s Quasi-Pedestal was inspired by Victorian Rustic era treestones, a trend that championed the idea of the cemetery as a retreat for the living. Treestones are grave markers carved in the shape of trunks, stumps, and logs and they were full of symbolism connected to the person who passed away.

The Victorian treestones were intricate and full of detail. Mora’s version is paired down and minimalistic - a humble “monument” to things that never existed but are still alive in the form of a wish, an idea, an intention. For Mora, these things tend to live somewhere in our mind and are as defining as the things that did happen.

The series was inspired by a series of conversations she had with her children’s grandmother who is now 94. She shared with Mora that as she started to confront her mortality, she faced the reality that many of the things she wanted to do would come to pass because it was now too late and that many of the people involved were already gone.

In these conversations, she encouraged Mora to be proactive and do anything she wanted to do now, because time is something we run out of eventually. The conversations prompted Mora make sizable positive changes in all areas of her life.

She named the piece Quasi Pedestal, in other words, Almost a Pedestal, as a reference to the ways we sometimes just rest things on a pedestal of nostalgia and a bit of sadness as we step into apathy, complacency, and give up on our ideas, wishes and hopes. She likes the idea of a tree stump as a symbol of new life and possibility.