Trees and the Sacred

About

The Arborealists and invited artists mount an exhibition about trees and their sacred aspects throughout the culture from ancient to modern time.

‘Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.’  

Hermann Hesse

Trees formed mankind's first temples, their first places of worship. In some cultures for thousands of years trees were the object of worship and peoples in Eastern Europe believed they would become trees post mortem.

Before the eternal flame became the road sign outside schools, it was the tree of learning. The 'learning' was the 'word', and that came from the Christian Bible, where the tree is often mentioned in the optimistic sense.

This exhibition will present new work by The Arborealists on the broad-brush theme of trees and sacred sites. It will aim to articulate the profound, spiritual essence of such sites, especially through the significance and emotive power of their trees. Indeed a tree can be the central element of a sacred place.

Subjects might include churchyards, often protected by ancient yews, cathedral closes and abbey ruins that pervade a magical sensibility. Artists might also be drawn to sites of other faiths or folklore, and historic environments such as Avebury that held an especial mystical importance for our ancestors. The exhibition will engender a sense of peace and well-being, as well perhaps of mystery, and encourage a desire for contemplation and connection to a higher plane, appropriate for a cathedral gallery space.

Trees provide a wonderfully versatile subject for artists, not only in terms of the rich variety of form, texture and colour they provide, whether individually or collectively, but also through the wealth of association - myth, folklore, religious and symbolic significance, that they have come to embody over many centuries. In Britain, trees as a subject have inspired artists from Gainsborough and Constable through to the Pre-Raphaelites, the Neo-Romantics and the Ruralists. Piet Mondrian and Victor Pasmore used the tree as a device to turn abstract and Paul Nash famously stated that he loved and worshipped trees and believed they were people.

Each artist will represented by just one work and a short text on the subject site, in order to enrich the visual impact of the group’s diversity of practice. The exhibition will include interpretive wall-texts and artists’ talks and related workshops will enhance the programme and engage the community.

Talks and drawing workshops will take place on the 20 & 21 May.

‘On each side of the river stood the tree of life

And leaves of the tree are for the healing of nations’

Revelations 22.2

‘Behold the Saviour of mankind, nailed to the shameful tree

How vast the love that hill inclined to die and bleed for thee’

Samuel Wesley 1662-1735