Unlike most of his previous works which were characterized by urban wanderings, making contact with the photographed subjects and tracing mundane human gestures, this time Kowner turns to nature and avoids looking at the camera. The figure wanders around the forest, trying to study it and decipher what happened there. It digs through the burnt bark, touching it and examining its state. A sense of pain emerges from the forest, which is enhanced upon the discovery of the quarry and the wound it leaves in the mountain.

Israeli reality is reflected in the video. The fire may have been started by natural causes or human negligence, but the possibility of arson due to a nationalist motive also arises. Apart from the socio-political gaze, the work addresses processes of healing and rehabilitation, the image of the Israeli forest as opposed to the natural forest, as well as ecological issues, vis-à-vis the fire and the exploitation of mountain rock for the quarry industry.

The title of the work alludes to two 1990 paintings by Nurit David entitled To Learn Writing from Trees. In the case of both artists, David and Kowner, the motif of wandering feet is discernible, as well as the association with and turning to the trees. While David imprints feet against the backdrop of trees in her paintings, Kowner shoots a live wanderer focusing on the feet moving amidst the trees. In the works of both artists an emotional and personal interpretation emerges. Learning Pain from Trees implies a personification of nature, and the trees’ peeling reflects the peeling of psychic layers and the intricacy of the human soul.

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