A totem, but furthermore a structure reminiscent of Brancusi's Endless Column 1936/37, placed at the end of The Avenue of Heroes in Tirgu-Jiu, Romania, Charred Column finds its own place between these extremes of verticality.

This is one of a series of columns made by David Nash in a variety of woods, the first in 1983 in sycamore, at the Forest Park in St Louis, now in a collection in Florida. One was destroyed in a gallery fire in Chicago, another was made in Japan in 1984 and is now in the collection of Setagya Museum. The first oak column was made in Belgium and is now in a private collection in the south of France.

Charred Column, the next to be made in oak, was started in 1991 at David Nash's studio, Capel Rhiw, in Blaenau Ffestiniog. He has used only the heartwood of the oak trunk for this sculpture, the sap wood having been cut away. V-shaped cuts were made in the column to create the divisions within the form and then the whole was rolled into fire, a portion at a time, in order to burn the wood to its final shape and colour.

The carbon surface almost denies the natural qualities of the wood, and allows the viewer to think more of the form than of the material from which the sculpture is made. The velvet black of Charred Column affords a vivid contrast with living trees in all seasons. In summer it hides mysteriously in the shaded canopy, in spring it glows against the pale green of the beech, and in winter it stands in full light against the grey trunks of the surrounding trees, in stark contrast with frost or snow.