WATCHING OUT FOR THE TREES, 2020
(one in the series: We Breathe Trees)
Acrylic paint and pasted--up paper print--outs, on existing hoardings (20m x 2.5m)
An invitation was made to community members, 'Save the M32 Maple' campaign supporters and other tree protectors to become part of a wall of people 'Watching Out for the Trees, Breathing Through Their Leaves', on Ashley Down Road in St Pauls, a street where air-pollution levels are usually well over legal limits.
Photo credits (above): Simon Holliday - With deep gratitude for photographs, and to all participants.
I'd been following the fate of the M32-Maples for a while (originally five mature trees on a contested development site), supporting from a distance without getting directly involved. At the same time I'd been turning over, and over, in my mind how to extend my leaf-mask project since the Clean Air for Life craftivist action... How could I make it work harder...?
After the two most recent Maples were felled, leaving a single tree standing, I got in touch with the M32-Maples Supporters group and asked if I could work with them to highlight the crucial importance of trees in an urban environment. It took a bit of thinking to work out how to link the leaf-masks to the campaign, but in the end it became obvious, and I dared to join the ranks of Bristol's 'street artists', Participants were invited to send me photos of themselves wearing leaf-masks which I then edited. Over 40 cut out prints of faces were pasted-up at three different times between November and December...
Due to the very wet weather the pasted-up faces only lasted temporarily... but were there hopefully long enough to capture people's attention and imagination; to spark a different kind of thinking about the situation, as they passed by on foot or by car...
In the lead up to the Winter Solstice and Christmas I asked people to make festive masks using evergreen leaves and bright berries. I also made six masks and a couple of placards for an M32-Maples Supporters flash-mob to wear as they danced outside Broadmead shops in the centre of Bristol. Images of these seasonal leaf-mask wearers were then pasted up in time for Solstice on 21st December. Finding a dry couple of hours to do this in was a challenge!