At 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, July 18, the Seattle Fire Department responded to a fire at Carkeek Park.

What they found was not a building or forest fire, but an arson of a work of art. Artist Josho Somine's 20-foot tall cardboard tree, which was a part of the temporary exhibit "Rootbound: Heaven and Earth IV," was reduced to ashes.

This is the latest in a trend of abnormally aggressive vandalism, according to a press release sent out by the Center on Contemporary Art. Other vandalized art since the exhibit's opening includes: Fox Spear's exhibit, "I will go Back and Not Come Out" went missing, Suze Woolf's "Tree Futures" was removed/damaged, Viewlands Group's "Landscape Intervention" was damaged (since repaired), Tiki Muvihall's "Fruitless Grafting" was damaged, and The Unearth Collective's "The Mediated Landscape" was 50 percent dismantled.

Many pieces already incorporate some element of decay or erosion, according to the website, and would not have lasted very long in the first place. CoCA notes in the press release that, by nature of it being outside and not in a gallery, the public is in a way free to interact with the pieces however they wish.

So far, there are no clues on who is behind the vandalism. The exhibit is scheduled to run through October.