berlinde de bruyckere cripplewood at venice art biennale...'cripplewood' is a enormous wax installation that accurately reproduces a vast fallen tree trunk, with more wax branches twisted round it and weighted with sand sacks and torn material. an enormous, gnarled and knotted, uprooted elm tree, merging into a mass of trunks and limbs with an almost disturbing resemblance to the muscles, tendons and bones of the human form. the work by artist berlinde de bruyckere is exhibited in a setting that does not actually use any electric light but has been made by covering the belgium pavilion’s large skylight in hessian sacking. the curator, the writer J.M. coetzee (winner of the 2003 nobel prize for literature) describes it as a monstrous, melancholic, poetic work that speaks of death, decay, and dashed dreams. philippe van cauteren, S.M.A.K. (the museum of contemporary art in ghent) artistic director, is co-curator.