Thousands of tree samples used to create ambitious public artwork
Tree samples from around the world will tell the history of life in an ambitious public artwork due to be unveiled at the University of Bristol next spring.
Artist Katie Paterson has amassed a collection of 10,000 unique samples of tree species, sourced from every country across the world, from fossilized trees dating back over 390 million years ago to the most recent emergent species.
The University of Bristol has commissioned 'Hollow' through Bristol-based arts producer Situations as part of its new £56.5 million Life Sciences building, which was officially opened by Sir David Attenborough last year.
The public are invited to hear about the project at Arnolfini next week, with a talk from Katie Paterson on Thursday [3 December] at 6.30pm.
An open house runs from Friday to Sunday, 11am to 6pm, when Katie and a team of helpers will be organising the collection of 10,000 samples prior to creating the artwork, which she's designed alongside Zeller & Moye Architectural Studio.
Katie Paterson (b. 1981, Scotland) is known for her conceptual artworks that in the past have involved broadcasting the sounds of a melting glacier live to a visitor on a mobile phone in an art gallery, mapping all the dead stars, compiling a slide archive of the history of darkness across the ages, custom-making a light built to simulate the experience of moonlight, and burying a nano-sized grain of sand deep within the Sahara desert.
She was the winner of the Independent’s Creative 30 award ‘for Britain’s most creative young person’ and has won a 2014 South Bank Sky Arts Award. In 2013 she was awarded an Honorary Fellowship at Edinburgh University in recognition of her 'major contribution in fostering collaboration between the arts and sciences'.
Produced by Situations, Hollow will open to the public in spring 2016 and is funded by the University of Bristol and Arts Council England through Grants for Arts.
