ReRooted exhibition - You Can’t Make Trees
Artistic residency at Arbeit Studios: January - May 2024
You Can’t Make Trees was an artistic residency and exhibition I did with my father (Ray Attfield) from January to May 2024.
Over the four-month residency, we collectively delved into the transformational potential of natural materials, exploring how to give meaning to the ordinary and our relationship to nature, particularly in urban environments; this work supported our conviction that wherever we are, we are part of not separate from nature.
The work began with a pile of wood and locally foraged plants, vines, leaves and stems that were available in the winter months, either foraged or donated by local gardening groups. Over the four-month residency we questioned and considered the qualities of these different materials, particularly how they relate to our daily lives and cultural history.
We were particularly interested in plants’ functional use, learning traditional craft techniques that drew on these materials to make ordinary objects, furniture, houses, fishing nets and baskets. The practical use of plants provided communities with an identity that was closely related to their locality.
Ray was fascinated by trees, their long and complex lives expressed in the rings of a cross-cut, the skin and bone of their bodies, their willingness to be civilised. He looks to wood for the way forward.
Our work was presented both within and outside of the gallery; intertwined and side by side bold and large in contrast with small-scale and delicate
Throughout the residency I collected all nature of plants with a potential for making, from iris leaves to vines, each with varying drying times and many hours of working with their differing properties using weaving, plaiting, looping and sewing techniques. I enjoyed finding plants that had escaped the control of our managed idea of beauty, plants considered as weeds, bindweed or dandelions that are often dismissed, that offer properties that can be transformed into practical objects, such as rope and vessels to hold things. The things I created remain part of nature, their lifetime and decay will be determined by many factors.
Watch a film about the residency here
