Since time immemorial, trees have involved us in a visceral relationship—rooted in our bodies, our consciousness, and our cultures. We breathe air together. They offer fruits, filter groundwater, and hold the earth together. We summon trees in our stories and myths, seek them out for their healing powers. But across the Earth, trees are rapidly disappearing. Whether directly or indirectly, their disappearance has come at our bidding, through deforestation, wildfire, and extraction. Industry and economics have cast a dark shadow over the wondrous world of trees, reducing their complexity to something that fits within our own understanding, our own needs.
“Every tree offers us a wordless sensory experience,” writes David Haskell, author of The Song of Trees, “a connection that unites human bodies and consciousness to plants’ inner worlds.” Remember the silence and wisdom of old-growth forests, discover the memories held within the rings of a tree, bear witness to wildfire, and experience how the aromas of trees evoke kinship and connection. Here, trees invite us into their world and into a deeper recognition of how deeply entwined we are: our fate is theirs, and theirs is ours.
Featuring work from Alisha Anderson, David Haskell, Adam Loften and Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee
SENSORY SMELLING EXPERIENCE
Adapted from the essay Eleven Ways of Smelling a Tree by David Haskell
Experience an inventory of trees through scent. These aromas offer a sensory encounter with trees from around the world.
Aroma is the primary language of trees.
Virtual Reality Experiences
Sanctuaries of Silence
by Adam Loften and Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee
Sanctuaries of Silence is an immersive listening journey into the Hoh Rain Forest, one of the quietest places in North America. Silence just might be on the verge of extinction, and acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton believes that even the most remote corners of the globe are impacted by noise pollution. Through this virtual reality experience, join Hempton in asking: How do we cultivate silence? How do we practice deep listening in or-der to connect to the wild around and within us?
The Atomic Tree
by Adam Loften and Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee
The Atomic Tree is a journey into the memories of one of the most revered trees in the world—a 400-year-old Japanese White Pine bonsai that witnessed—and survived—the atomic blast in Hiroshima. From Japan’s ancient cedar forests and Buddhist temples to the family home in Hiroshima where the pine was nurtured for five generations: this virtual reality experience explores the unbroken chain of living stories held within the rings of this tree.
I want to tell what the forests
were like
I will have to speak
in a forgotten language
W.S. Merwin
FILM
meristem
by Alisha Anderson
In the weeks and months following a devastating wildfire, artist Alisha Anderson bears witness to a stand of scorched evergreen trees in the forests of Oregon. This film follows her process of sitting with the trees through the changes of three seasons. In the presence of these fallen giants, she inquires of the trees how to mourn, how to face loss, and how to be present in the act of witnessing.
