The Ash Looks Back – A Short Film

The Ash Tree Stream exhibition with Andover Trees United is currently under lock and key at CAS (Chapel Arts Studios) in Andover. We had a couple of days where we could open to the public before lockdown arrived, and I was able to give a virtual tour to one of the schools who were involved. The other four schools will receive a recorded video tour from me soon.

Linked with the exhibition, I am carrying out a Instagram takeover on the @CASArtists channel and will be interviewed there about my work and the exhibition live on Wednesday 11th November at 6pm.

As you’re not able to visit the exhibition in person I will also be adding a video tour of the exhibition to the Ash Tree Stream website in the next week or so. In the meantime I’d like to share a short film ( approximately 1 minute 30 seconds) that I made as part of my research for the Ash Tree Stream exhibition, called The Ash Looks Back.

Photograph: Susan Francis (Curator)

This film was made to explore what happens when we change our orientation, and instead of looking at the tree, we turn around and consider what the tree itself experiences. The footage used in the film was recorded using camera traps strapped to different Ash trees within a cycle ride of where I live in Wiltshire, plus some phone footage and sounds recorded in a variety of locations. As different animals pass the camera, they trigger the sensor and either film or photograph themselves.

I see this series of films and photographic pieces as a collaboration with the Ash trees, and with the animals for which they provide a home. As Ash trees die from Ash Die Back Disease over the coming years, it is these animals, and other smaller, less obvious organisms which live, eat and breed on/in Ash trees, that will be impacted upon.