Founded by artists Annette Weisser and Mitchell Cope.

The Detroit Tree of Heaven Woodshop reimagines the invasive tree of heaven—once imported from China with migrant workers and botanists—as both material and metaphor for resilience in post-industrial Detroit. Known for thriving in contaminated soil, drought, and abandonment, the tree mirrors the survival and ingenuity of Detroit’s communities amidst urban decline. By learning to cure and craft its wood, the project transformed what many considered a weed into benches, tables, vessels, and frames, turning symbols of neglect into functional and aesthetic objects. Collaboration with local artists, carpenters, and small businesses deepened the project’s connection to the city, situating the woodshop as an experiment in collective making and urban renewal.

Yet the project also exceeds its Detroit origins, revealing how migration—of species, materials, and people—reshapes landscapes across borders. The tree of heaven’s history, carried with Chinese migrants and dispersed globally, entangles ecological adaptation with human movement, imperial botany, and industrial collapse. As the woodshop expanded its work to places like Berlin, it underscored how resilience and transformation are not bound to one geography but continually re-root in new contexts. In this way, the Detroit Tree of Heaven Woodshop becomes both a material practice and a living metaphor for persistence, adaptation, and the entangled futures of cities, ecologies, and migrations.

— SG