Christmas

Santa List

Leaf wreath

If I were an artist

  

Had I the imagination, creativity and determination to be an artist I would like to think I would turn out something like Katie Paterson.
I had the pleasure of hearing her talk this-evening about her latest installation which will sit in the heart of Bristol for the next 10 years.

She has a fascinating portfolio of work up to now exploring the relationship between time and space and the universe and the moon and the planets and the space we inhabit here on earth. I think she must sometimes question our significance on this tiny rock.

One that captured my imagination included the fossil necklace. a string of beads, each made from a distinct period of history with every era of our planets history represented. She commented that far from looking like dull stones these tiny sculpted fossils looked, up close, like entire worlds in themselves


In particular, I like her ongoing project Future Library. She has planted 1000 trees in Norway. Each year she has commissioned an author to write a piece. In 100 years time all these narratives will come together in a book published using the pulped flesh of these Norwegian trees.


Her current project Hollow aims to bring 10,000 species of tree into a single reflective space. She described the painstaking task of sourcing these thousands of precious specimens from across the globe, in fact almost every country on earth, and from times spanning thousands of years. From fossil specimens of the first photosynthesising algae in slimy prehistoric ponds to the tall magestic red woods of California. She made sure to represent trees from the all the varied habitats on earth, be that mangroves or tundra, rolling English fields or dusty savannah.

She reflected on the fascinating relationship we all share with time and space and how trees are the very embodiment of that. With the layers of their bark being a visual mark of passing time and the environment the were part of.

I'm really looking forward to spending some time in the enclosed tree space in a couple of months time.
Perhaps one day I can build my own.

Oh, if only I were an artist.

Another damp day