Among the Trees
Among the Trees
4 March - 17 May 2020
Hayward Gallery
Press View: Monday 2 March 2020
Among the Trees celebrates key works of art that reimagine how we think about trees and forests. Spanning the past 50 years, the exhibition brings together major works by 38 leading international artists from five different continents. As well as illuminating the beauty and visually arresting character of trees, Among the Trees invites us to consider trees as both symbols and living organisms. Timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, the exhibition explores how trees have shaped human civilisation and how they continue to play an indispensable role in our lives and imaginations.
Among the Trees covers an expansive and adventurous artistic terrain with works ranging from immersive video installations to life-sized sculptures; from large-scale paintings and drawings to intimate black-and-white photographs. Participating artists are: Robert Adams, Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Yto Barrada, Johanna Calle, Gillian Carnegie, Tacita Dean, Peter Doig, Jimmie Durham, Kirsten Everberg, Anya Gallaccio, Simryn Gill, Rodney Graham, Shi Guowei, Hugh Hayden, Eva Jospin, Kazuo Kadonaga, William Kentridge, Toba Khedoori, Luisa Lambri, Myoung Ho Lee, Zoe Leonard, Robert Longo, Sally Mann, Steve McQueen, Jean-Luc Mylayne, Mariele Neudecker, Virginia Overton, Roxy Paine, Giuseppe Penone, Abel Rodríguez, Ugo Rondinone, George Shaw, Robert Smithson, Jennifer Steinkamp, Thomas Struth, Rachel Sussman, Pascale Marthine Tayou and Jeff Wall.
The works in the exhibition take us on a journey of ideas and simultaneously transport us across the globe: visitors will encounter images of Colombian rainforests, jungles in Japan, olive orchards in Israel, Scandinavian woods and an underground forest in South Africa. Incorporating distinctive and often surprising perspectives, the artists in the exhibition question our conventional representations of trees in order to forge new ways of understanding our crucial and multifaceted relationship with arboreal life.
Among the Trees will be divided into three sections. In the first, visitors encounter images of trees and forests that call attention to characteristics of complexity and connectivity in nature, chiming with recent scientific discoveries about the “wood wide web” – the network of underground roots, fungi and bacteria that connects forest organisms. Like Robert Longo’s giant charcoal drawing of a massive tree, the works in this section dramatise the intricate architecture of branch and root systems. Along with a looming six-metre-high wooden sculpture by Giuseppe Penone and a 16-metre-long video portrait of a Finnish spruce by Eija-Liisa Ahtila, several of these works also remind us of how trees set our sense of scale.
The exhibition’s second section features works that play with the blurring line between our concepts of nature and culture. Artists such as photographer Robert Adams examine the impact of present-day human activity on nature, with industrial farming and the clearcutting of woodlands; others, like Zoe Leonard, consider how trees unexpectedly adapt to man-made urban milieus. In other works, trees appear as valuable sources of sustenance as well as objects of decor. Additionally, a number of artworks within this section cast trees as silent witnesses of forgotten histories: artist and film director Steve McQueen, for instance, presents a photograph, taken outside New Orleans, of an innocent-looking tree that was formerly used as a gallows for lynching black Americans.
In the final section of Among the Trees, artists explore the theme of time. Reflecting seasonal changes and with life spans that far exceed our own, trees have long served in art as symbols for invoking mortality. Ugo Rondinone’s sculptures of ancient olive trees, cast in aluminium from moulds of living specimens, stand as twisted memorials of condensed time. Colour photographs by Rachel Sussman document some of the world’s most ancient trees, including a 9,500-year-old spruce in northern Sweden, while Jennifer Steinkamp’s 15-metre-long animated video projection places us in the midst of a birch forest as it cycles through the four seasons.
Ralph Rugoff, Director, Hayward Gallery says: “At a moment when the destruction of the world’s forests is accelerating at a record pace, Among the Trees brings together the work of leading international artists who urge us to think about the essential roles that trees and forests play in our lives and psyches. Hopefully visitors will leave the exhibition with a renewed sense of appreciation for both the beauty and complexity of these indispensable organisms.”
Among the Trees will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue featuring a curatorial overview by Ralph Rugoff, individual artist texts, an original essay by writer and critic Jeffrey Kastner exploring the representation of trees in art and a text by philosopher Matteo Pasquinelli looking at the tree as a cultural symbol. Alongside the exhibition there will be an extensive public talks programme featuring several of the exhibition artists including George Shaw, Johanna Calle, Mariele Neudecker, as well as lectures and performances by authors, artists and authorities on climate change.
Among the Trees is curated by Ralph Rugoff, Director, Hayward Gallery.
The exhibition is generously supported by Pro Helvetia.
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For further press information and high res images please contact:
Filipa Mendes, filipa.mendes@southbankcentre.co.uk, 0207 921 0946 or
James Smyllie, james.smyllie@southbankcentre.co.uk, 0207 921 0752
Listings information:
Among the Trees
4 March - 17 May 2020
Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX
Prices: From £10. Concessions available and members go free.
Link to Among The Trees web page HERE
Hayward Gallery opening times:
11am – 7pm every day except Tuesdays when the gallery is closed.
Late night opening on Thursdays until 9pm
Tickets and further information: Tickets on sale (Southbank Centre Members free)
www.southbankcentre.co.uk / 020 3879 9555
Twitter: @haywardgallery
Instagram: @Hayward.Gallery
Facebook: www.facebook.com/haywardgallery/
Catalogue:
Hayward Gallery Publishing
Paperback
176 pages
240 x 190 mm
100 colour illustrations
ISBN 9781855323669
Special exhibition price £22.99 (RRP £24.99)
Complimentary press tickets:
Journalists planning to cover the exhibition will receive one complimentary ticket on presentation of their NUJ, AICA or business cards at the Hayward Gallery box office. Journalists without press accreditation who would like to cover Hayward exhibitions can contact the Southbank Centre press office to arrange a ticket.
NOTES
About Hayward Gallery
Hayward Gallery, part of Southbank Centre, has a long history of presenting work by the world's most adventurous and innovative artists including major solo shows by both emerging and established artists and dynamic group exhibitions. They include those by Bridget Riley, Martin Creed, Antony Gormley, Tracey Emin, Andy Warhol, Ed Ruscha, Jeremy Deller, Anish Kapoor, René Magritte, Francis Bacon and David Shrigley, as well as influential group exhibitions such as Africa Remix, Light Show, Psycho Buildings and Space Shifters. Opened by Her Majesty, The Queen in July 1968, the gallery is one of the few remaining buildings of its style. The Brutalist building was designed by a group of young architects, including Dennis Crompton, Warren Chalk and Ron Herron and is named after Sir Isaac Hayward, a former leader of the London County Council.
About Southbank Centre
Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre and one of the UK's top five visitor attractions, occupying a 17-acre site that sits in the midst of London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames. We exist to present great cultural experiences that bring people together and we achieve this by providing the space for artists to create and present their best work and by creating a place where as many people as possible can come together to experience bold, unusual and eye-opening work. We want to take people out of the everyday, every day.
The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Southbank Centre is made up of the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery as well as being home to the National Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection. It is also home to four Resident Orchestras (London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Sinfonietta and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment) and four Associate Orchestras (Aurora Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra and National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain).