The Archive of the Trees are temporary sited artworks that combine Forestry Commission tree records with historical archives and local anecdotes about the weather, with the images of each tree’s secret interior archive.
The Archive of the Trees
Edwina fitzPatrick
Fineshade Wood
Nr Corby
Northants
NN17 3BB
From July 2018
Our first artist in residence at Fineshade Wood, Edwina fitzPatrick, has been investigating the forest as a living archive that traces human activity in relation to the landscape.
Assisted by Swansea University’s UK Oak Project, Edwina has collected and analysed very small cores from healthy, mature trees in Fineshade Wood. Without harming the trees, the cores reveal the tree’s age, growing patterns, past weather conditions and stresses such as diseases. In effect, they are the tree’s own archive: each specimen reveals its ‘autobiography’.
Working with foresters, regular visitors to Fineshade Wood and local resources, Edwina has creating The Archive of the Trees – temporary sited artworks that combine Forestry Commission tree records with historical archives and local anecdotes about the weather, with the images of each tree’s secret interior archive.
These can be found both within Fineshade Wood itself from July 2018 and within the new Arches project space following its launch later in the year. Please also visit Edwina’s project website: www.archiveofthetrees.co.uk
Edwina fitzPatrick is a UK-based artist whose work explores the living environment, especially in regard to mutability and change; celebrating narratives and conversations that are deeply informed by the history and the specific qualities of a place. Using interactive fieldwork as her working methodology, her practice focuses on how humans have and are affecting the nature, culture and ecology of a place. They also reflect upon how these delicate local balances relate to complex global issues such as climate change or marine pollution.
Edwina is the first of four residencies at Fineshade Wood from 2018 to 2020 as part of our two year programme, The Forest Is The Museum. The following residencies will be with Justin Carter, Owl Project, plus Abigail Lane and Lala Meredith-Vula.