Monday 15 June 2009

Ghost Forest

Stump of Fallen Tree in GhanaNo sooner have the first 615 "living statues" been selected to clutter the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square (CLICK) than we get the news that the square is booked for another half-baked non-art "art" project: a Ghost Forest for the week beginning 15 November (title link). Angela Palmer came up with the idea of surrounding Nelson's Column with the stumps of fallen trees from Ghana, with green laser beams shining upward at night. (Pilots beware!) Her motive for this display might be good - she wants to highlight deforestation -, but why waste resources transporting stumps all the way from Africa? Why not use British stumps? And why not use sawn stumps to highlight deforestation? Natural loss isn't the problem. Greedy, irresponsible logging is the problem. Angela hopes to have her stumps on show in Copenhagen for the UN conference on climate change in December. More wasted resources delivering them there! Saving trees isn't a fashion bandwagon. Trees are the planet's lungs. Without them, Earth is lost.

8 Comments:

At 5/10/09, Blogger Scott said...

Ghost Forest Website:
www.ghostforest.org

Ghost Forest Dates:
Ghost Forest Trafalgar Square, London
16-22 November 2009
Ghost Forest Thorvaldsens Plads, Copenhagen.
7-18 December 2009

 
At 7/10/09, Blogger Unknown said...

Hi, Scott

Thanks for the information.

 
At 10/10/09, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I totally disagree, its creating awarness not wasting reasources, because in the long run, it will HELP and the only reason its going to Copenhagen is to show world leaders what they are destroying! And also the trees were naturally feld! But your intitalled to your own opinion, but first get your facts right.

 
At 10/10/09, Blogger Unknown said...

You haven't told me anything I didn't know, so I did get my facts straight. There must be a cheaper way of getting out point across, without wasting resources.

 
At 12/10/09, Anonymous Anonymous said...

yes but there has been art works that have tried to raise awareness that have tried and failed, nothing has worked so far, the world is being destroyed and we need something that stuns us with there beauty that can make people think, i really believe this could help! although I'm glad to see you have tweaked the earlier version, so know you have both views and its not so biest! thanks again

 
At 12/10/09, Blogger Unknown said...

The most powerful medium is the movie, and it reaches far more people than will an installation in Trafalgar Square. A recent nature programme on BBC TV showed the logging lorries plundering forests in Guinea. That programme reached millions, but what can any of us do?

The reason the message isn't getting across is that the greedy logging companies don't want to hear it. They're too busy making money. As for governments, today's problems are recession, unemployment and shrinking gross national product. The death of the planet is tomorrow's problem!

As far as I'm concerned, recession is the best thing that could have happened to the planet. Try getting that message across! It would be easier to get the world to follow China's policy of limiting families to one child per couple. Even that is only a short-term fix!

I've been banging away at green issues on this blog for years. Did you know that the excrement from wild pigs in Australia is washing down rivers and is slowly destroying the Great Barrier Reef?

Art won't save the planet. The only solution is something as devasting as the Black Death in mediaevil Europe, which wiped out more than half the population.

 
At 13/10/09, Anonymous Anonymous said...

your intialled to your own opinnion, but you shouldnt be biast!

 
At 13/10/09, Blogger Unknown said...

I am being absolutely objective.

 

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