Intervention: The Lockdown Effect.

In late April and early May seedlings took root on the muddy track, where normally they would have been mown down by recreational vehicles. Along with what seemed like a more-vigorous-than-normal onset of Spring, these little plants appeared to be benefitting from the lockdown against Covid-19. However, it soon became apparent that drought, along with increased numbers of walkers and still the occasional recreational vehicle did threaten their survival. I decided to rescue some of them by replanting them on the side of the track and others by potting them up and nurturing them at home.

Those replanted in the landscape have failed to survive. Although I watered them, it wasn’t enough, and they either withered or were uprooted by animals.

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However, those potted up and borne home are beginning to thrive and promise to become proper trees that can one day be planted somewhere safe.

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Why the urge to save them? It’s likely that this happens every year and I don’t even notice. The seedlings take root and occasionally some survive only to be eaten by deer or trodden on or run over. In the current situation there seems a greater poignancy in witnessing a struggle for survival which in turn provokes an urge to nurture. I have been looking at the work of Ackroyd and Harvey and their ongoing Beuys’ Acorns project, wondering how I might be able to incorporate these plants into my work. Their project is a part of a much bigger one initiated by Joseph Beuys in which, with the help of volunteers and posthumously, he planted 7000 oak trees between 1982 and 1987 in Kassel, Germany, each with an accompanying basalt stone. In 2007 Ackroyd and Harvey collected acorns from the 7000 Oaks planted in Kassel, and raised a new generation of trees building on Beuys’ legacy of belief in art as a force for social change. The trees they have managed to raise have been toured extensively in France and the UK as part of a programme of conversations around the role of trees in sustainable urban planning and improving air quality – most recently at Bloomberg Arcade as part of London’s first National Park City Festival in 2019. There is much to learn from these artists’ approach to research and practice as they engage with the pressing concerns of our times. They are key players in discussions of the role of the visual arts in raising awareness of and taking action on the climate emergency. They co-devised the processional event to mark the launch of Culture Declares in April 2019 and continue to be active in that movement.

Photographs by Liz Clifford.