To the fallen trees (2022)
With collaborating artists Marnie Badham, Ai Yamamoto & George Akl
9 October 2022, One Tree Hill, Tremont
Community participants: Julie Tipene O’Toole, Lia Hills, Emmet Wong Hulbert, Richard & Katelin Farnsworth, Cameron Semmens, Marian Spires, Leslie Almberg, Liz Millman and Emmet Wong Hulbert. In partnership with the Big Anxiety Festival 2022, Yarra Ranges Art Attack, Yarra Ranges Regional Museum & Ridgewalk/ngurrak barring
What if we memorialized ecological loss like we did battles?
(Alan Sonfist, artist, 1968)
Taking the material wreckage of the extreme weather event of the Victorian windstorms (2021) as a starting point, ‘To the fallen trees…’ was a public and performative artwork in 2022. Creative engagement of local writers, artists and residents at the site of One Tree Hill, Tremont, has created a shared space and responsive connection to place. ‘To the fallen trees…’ explores eco-anxiety through affective engagement where hundreds of tall, almost centurian Eucalyptus trees dramatically fell during the windstorms, destroying local bushland areas, schools and local people's homes. This wreckage laid in neat piles for 14 months at One Tree Hill, an emotive reminder of the destruction of the wind. As the massive piles of debris lay dormant, new growth began to form within these chaotically reorganised piles of tree debris, and finally returned to the earth through burning by local park rangers. As artists we witnessed this cycle of extreme destruction of our beloved trees and their return to the earth where they originally emerged from.
A performance of the public reading of written letters to these fallen trees drew attention to ecological loss, holding space for collective memory and personal emotional responses to the destruction, and created local meaning making while activating social care. The documentation of these community poetics informed the creation of a collective memorial for the fallen trees in audio, performative and visual forms and created a dialogue with the local context. The project was performed on Sunday 9 October and was edited into a soundscape.
The artwork (images, letters and soundscape) were shown as part of Invisible Winds, Climarte, Richmond, Australia (2023) and Wild Hope, The Design Hub, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia (2023).
Images and video: 1. The performance at One Tree Hill, Tremont, photo by George Akl and 2. Emmet reading his letter to the fallen trees, photo by Tammy Wong Hulbert 3. To the fallen trees..., soundscape, composed by Ai Yamamoto 4. Letters by Katelin Farnsworth, Cameron Semmens and Lia Hills 5. To the fallen trees video, produced by Shane Hulbert
To the fallen trees….public outcomes and exhibitions:
1. The Big Anxiety Festival, 2022 - The original performance was held at One Tree Hill and recorded, 9 October, 2022
2. Invisible Winds, Climarte, 2023, curated by Tammy Wong Hulbert, Marnie Badham and Pia Johnson
3. Wild Hope: Conversations for a Planetary Commons, 2023, curated by Katrina Simon, Fleur Watson, Naomi Stead and Wendy Steele.
4. Wind, 2023, Moon Gallery and Studio, Tokyo, Japan.
