Get involved with art project at Westonbirt Arboretum (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)
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Get involved with project run by artist Richard Harris at Westonbirt Arboretum
8:00am Monday 11th March 2013 in News By Ian Craig
Rich Townsend of the Forestry Commission's tree team at Westonbirt Arboretum helping to mark out the sculpture's location
TREE enthusiasts are being invited to play a part in building a sculpture celebrating a tree dating back to Roman times.
Artist Richard Harris has been commissioned to create the installation celebrating the 2,000-year-old Lime Tree at the world-famous Westonbirt Arboretum near Tetbury.
The sculpture will use stems cut during the coppicing – the process by which it is trimmed back to its stumps to allow healthy stems to re-grow and keep it tree alive – to create a structure resembling the historic tree at full strength.
With hundreds of stems – some as long as 15 meters – to be used in the sculpture at the arboretum’s Silk Wood, volunteers are being asked to come forward to help in the building process.
Mr Harris said he felt “privileged” to be invited to work with the ancient tree.
“On coming across this small leafed lime for the first time I was struck by the sheer bulk of material on the ground following the coppicing process,” he said, “I plan to work with this great physical mass to give a real sense of the age and scale of the tree.
“The sculpture will reconfigure the cut wood into an equivalent vision of a tree of a similar age, giving visitors an element of what they expect from a 2,000 year old tree.”
To get involved with the project visit fowa.org.uk/volunteer
