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Ackroyd and Harvey

Documenting The Walking Forest The Walking Forest

Ackroyd and Harvey invited people to travel slowly and by low-carbon means to the Arnolfini Gallery as part of The C-Word exhibition by Platform. They were asked to bring a small tree or sapling gathered en route. Then at the gallery the genus, origin and journey of each tree was documented and added to the collection.

Planting out The Walking Forest

People were encouraged to document the story of the trees. Trees 18 to 24 were " ...holly trees from an old forest in the Brecon Beacons in Wales. They self-seed very easily, providing an evergreen background when winter comes, and berries for the birds" and trees 25 to 32 are "Ash trees from an ancient forest in Wales. Ash seeds very easily and grows at a fast rate. They love the limestone landscape.

"The Walking Forest was inspired by hundreds of acorns the artists' collected and germinated from artist Joseph Beuys' 700 Oaks, a symbolic planting scheme.  Beuys' is known for his art, actions and performances, and was also a founder member of the German Green party and passionate about creating works to raise environmental awareness.

At the close of the exhibition, on December 5th 2009 many of the saplings were planted on the Bristol Bath Railway Path as part of Breathing Places, a BBC initiative to beat the Guinness Record by planting over one million trees within an hour UK wide.

This project was supported by APE (Artists Project Earth), Arts Council England, and The Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol. 

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