Arbor Erecta: A Botanical Concept for Masculinity continues Rapoport’s exploration of gender.

This artwork interweaves a new story about James, a transgender man who underwent gender reassignment surgery from female to male, with representations of the New Guinean initiation rite of “tree bonding.” As James grows from his female body into that of a male, he re-enacts certain New Guinean tribal rituals that purported to purge the female pollutants acquired from the mother from the body of the initiated man.

The site is structured by ten botanical plants that are perceived as having gendered attributes, inspired by the symbolic importance in New Guinean culture of the Pandanus tree.

Arbor Erecta was also printed as an art book, part of Rapoport’s efforts to bring her Web Art works into a gallery context at a time when Web Art was misunderstood and dismissed by the art world.