A YEAR WITH
OUR TREE

A YEAR WITH OUR TREE

This was going to be my end of year wrap-up project. A year in the making, started on the day after the winter solstice in 2022 and scheduled to be neatly finished on this year's solstice on the 21st. And then Covid dropped by for a surprise visit last week and messed up all my plans. But there you go. Shit happens and all that.

But I was determined to get it done and put it out before Christmas. Just made it.

This is a short film made from stills taken of 'our tree'. A favourite tree in our local woods that I visit almost daily with the dog on our walks. Each time we pass, we interact with the tree. Rocket climbs up the trunk and waits for his treat. You may even spot him in some of the photos I've used.

The intention when I started was to create a simple time-lapse that showed the seasons changing around our tree. But quite a bit of human activity was centred around the tree this year.

I've documented other activity in these woods in my other project, 'Social Animals' - about local kids hanging out in the woods, having parties, building dens etc. Well this year, they happened to decide to use OUR tree as a new base. Not something I would have any problem with, had it not been for the fact that they snapped off one of OUR branches and hacked away at a stump at the base of the trunk. But hey-ho, OUR tree seems to have sustained.

An interesting shelter / winch lift type mechanism was also constructed on OUR tree as well at one point (you'll notice it appear in the video). Looked kinda cool and interesting, and I admired the ingenuity of the work. And Rocket liked it because he now had a carpeted first-storey platform that he could climb on to receive his treat.

Anyway, that seems to have been forgotten about now and activity around the tree seems to be back to normal.

All of this exciting activity provided some interesting content for my project, and changed the context of what the work is about. It also became a comment on the lack of respect people pay to our natural world friends, and a seeming lack of understanding of how everything is connected and interdependent.

And trees have had a rough year. So putting OUR TREE front and centre in a piece of work seems important right now.

I expect more of my personal work in 2024 will be centred around these themes and I'm looking forward to digging into that.

But for now, Merry Christmas to all. Thanks for the follows, the likes, the shares, the comments and the support over this last year. 

Be happy and healthy, and most importantly, be nice to trees.

If you would like to discuss a project with me, please feel free to CONTACT ME.